#pop2016

My POP story: as the semester progressed in Asian American studies class, we kept getting informed on how it was important to get ready to prepare for POP by our professor and TAs. 

I felt a little hesitation because I didn't know anything about POP or what POP was, only that there would be some sort of performance on stage of some kind.

 Well unfortunately for me I missed two classes because of misinformation, which made me miss out on getting to choose what group I wanted to be in initially.

 However, this turned out to be a great learning experience for me and my new group for pop welcomed me in- even though they had already started the initial plans for our fashion show. 

In our fashion show we decided to implement traditional and modern western attire into different showings of our models on stage.

 Our models represented India, China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. We were able to show a fusion of traditional attire with modern western attire during activities like: going out to the park, going to Coachella, going to a preppy University, an award show, or just going out for a day out in LA on the town.

 The pop show itself was amazing to me. I saw so many students of Asian American studies pool together their talents and create a visually stunning memorable experience for me that I will not soon forget. I also know that I will make extra efforts to see if I can make any future pop shows. From the really well made student short films that showed Asian American experiences and culture, to the very personal stories of both spoken word groups, as well as the live music and comedy shows that were created for POP this year; all resonated within me and the messages were received.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures or audio of this year's event. That's because I completely forgot about taking pictures because the show was so damn good that I was just drawn into what was happening on stage as well as offstage, before and after my own performance with my group. Even though we didn't have a lot of time together, I learn more about Monica, Timur, Jaspreet, Adrian, and the other folks in my group, because I never even had a chance to speak to them earlier in the semester( keep on with your dragonboat  racing Timur!).

 I just want to wrap this all up by saying that, because of my past being in the military, I was not able or even was aware of events like this that were happening in academia. So I want to use the word privileged to define my feelings towards even having the opportunity to attend this course and this POP event. I learned all about the Punjabi suits, and its components (Kameez, Salwaar, and Chunni), as well as the Hanbok, Korean and its components (Jeogori and Chima), that I just wouldn't have thought to look into on a regular day-to-day basis. So thanks everyone for welcoming me into the group, thank you Irene for including POP in the class, and much love and respect to you guys in the future.

Can you make it clap, no hands for me?