Time for another Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Emily Chu...
Who are you?
Emily
What are you?
A woman. Chinese in origin, Canadian in nationality. Fourth-generation Canadian, to be exact.
Where are you?
East coast. Living right outside of Manhattan in Long Island City and have been here for the past half year. Born and raised in the east side of Vancouver, BC but finding out more and more that my heart belongs in New York.
What do you do?
I graduated from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver with a BA in Communication; and was trained in Broadcasting at Washington State University at the Edward Murrow College of Communication. Most people never know what they want to do "when they grow up", but I had the reporter bug at an early age. Playing piano, luckily, was able to subsidize the dream.
I'm a freelance journalist/classical pianist. My life revolves in a dichotomy between both trades, although piano ironically has been the more forgiving/lucrative one. I've been playing piano since the age of 5 and completed the curriculum of the Royal Conservatory of Music based in Toronto by the age of 16 with a diploma in Performance. Since then, I've played for weddings, black-tie affairs, cocktail parties, restaurants and even funerals. Some people have referenced me to Adam Sandler a la The Wedding Singer! Don't know whether to smile or be offended. Upon coming to NY, the plan was to devote my days solely to piano which is what I'm doing. I'm taking Evening Division classes in classical piano at the Juilliard School of Music and teach through out the boroughs in the NY area, which is sometimes a treacherous trek!
The journalist aspect is still a work in progress since broadcast television is a dying medium, but I started in radio reporting and television producing. These days, I try to maintain my writing by freelancing as much as possible and blogging.
My blog is a courtesy of Xanga and can be found here: http://blog.emilychu.com
Finally, I also travel alot. Have backpacked to the grungiest of places and love it to death! The goal is to hit 30 countries by age 30 which I'm hoping to surpass ... soon.
What are you all about?
I'm all about following and chasing dreams, living life with passion, attack everything you do with vivacity, intensity and sincerity. Work has never felt like "work" to me. I'm always so mesmerized and enamored by piano and writing that when money comes into the equation, it's almost like a bonus and hardly a requirement. Fortunately, money does seem to flow when necessary thus, enforcing how I believe life should be lived. When I love something, I love it with all my heart in which very few things can deter me from.
What makes you angry?
I rarely get super worked up, but when I do, it's not pretty!
I get angry at the stupidity of young girls. Women who wield their sex for the wrong reasons, such as for attention, for validity, for self worth. I get angry when girls don't recognize the consequence of their actions and continue to validate themselves through the other sex, in hopes to relieve whatever insecurities that should've been addressed psychologically instead of pleading for the attention of men to eradicate.
I get angry when people don't recycle, when people are wasteful, when people don't understand the plight and catastrophe going on in Third-World countries. I get angry when people have a false sense of entitlement, like they're too good to buckle down and break a sweat or two. I'm all about empathy and compassion, but ignorance and apathy makes me angry.
I get angry when people don't do what they say, or don't say what they mean. Lying also makes me angry. I'm a big believer in keeping your word. Otherwise if you don't have your integrity, what do you really have at the end of the day?
Ok, I sound angrier than I really am. Or maybe I'm just an angry asian girl in denial!
