(Image: 8/24/24, our cousins bday party, 3 days before the news of my uncle)
By Andrea Pilapil
Art is a way of bringing people together.
Starting a business has been nothing short of exciting. After the loss of my cousin last year, I really turned gears and thought to myself, “How can I continue to bring together the ones that I love?”
My cousin was a start up kind of guy, he always tried to bring the family together and invited me to things. He followed his dreams of making music and thinking of very out of the box activities and art concepts. I remember for his 30th birthday party, he had a giant soup can and a huge balloon as the center art piece at his music studio. Amazing.
On the other hand, my uncle just passed away the Monday before our launch party. His house was the one everyone flocked to for gatherings. He was so welcoming and understanding, he also started his own business and always found a way to make things work. I felt bad for not being there for my family more these last few weeks, but my mom said to me “I think you focusing on your business is what he would’ve wanted”.
Thinking back, he always had creative ways to make people laugh. Whether it was karaoke, a Filipino pinata game, or even putting himself in weird situations to bring the mood up. He was brave and always spoke his mind to get a point across.
Losing these two people in my life at their young age has saddened me to the point where I wish I could be just as open and brave as they were. How can I make their legacy live on?
I’ve always loved art and picking out new crafts to work on. I wanted to see what it would be like to pursue that professionally in the way of event planning.
I have never been good at talking to big crowds and I am thankful to my Partner in Life, Francis Garcia, who is standing up to help make shifts in the Filipino American community in the Bay Area. Thank you so much to Arlene Oriel, for believing in my business idea.
A big thanks to both Francis and Arlene for supporting me and giving me the confidence to do and be better to make this business something bigger than just a thought bubble in my brain.
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