With glowing hearts
“It’s why I’m standing here, right here, right now.”
If you’ve known me over the last 5 years, you’ve probably heard me speak about the musical I’m involved with to some capacity, “Right Here, Write Now!” The short version of the long story is that in 2012, ANCOP approached my parents (and by association, my brother Mikey and myself) and asked if we could help them stage a musical production to help raise funds and awareness for their philanthropic and charitable missions of overseas child sponsorship, community development, and humanitarian relief.
The rest is history. “Right Here, Write Now!” made its debut in 2013 at RiverRock Theatre, Richmond BC to sold out audiences of 2000 people. Since then, it’s been shown nine times, at three different venues, raising over $250, 000 for the development of local and international communities, including ANCOP. And most recently, we were asked to take the show on tour. To San Francisco. (!!!!!).
It was these most recent shows in San Francisco, that proved to be the most challenging and trying in these last five years.
To make matters more difficult, my family and I no longer live in the same city, or time zone. So in my absence, they shouldered and bore the brunt of the stress and work associated with the project which was not easy. In the startup world I have now found myself in, everyone always talks about the strength of your team —how teams are the make-or-break of any project. I am blown away time and time again at how incredibly strong, in both will and faith, my family is. Every day at work, I am surrounded by incredible Canadian business/technology leaders — and yet I would still choose to work with my family each and every time. Their tenacity to do whatever it takes to get the job done, and their unwavering determination to put others first before themselves both inspires me and reminds me that “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
It’s difficult (especially for me) to admit failure of any kind, but going into San Francisco felt like boarding a sinking ship. The numbers for our shows were just not even remotely close to the others before it. Financially, it looked like we were going to have to concede and take a loss — a difficult pill to swallow, especially considering that our team was composed of volunteers and many youth/young adults who had dedicated months of blood sweat and tears into the show. It broke my heart to think about it.
My family and the production team in SF worked double time to make some adjustments that would be a bit easier on the books — but this meant moving to a smaller venue last minute, and cutting the orchestra. It hurt. We dreaded breaking the news to the cast and crew, who had just flown in, excited about the week to come. And yet when we did, their reaction left me dumbfounded.
Their demeanour did not change even for a second, and through genuine smiles they reminded us that they were not performing for the sake of performing — that regardless of if we performed to crowds of 10000 or to a room of 10 — as long as we made a difference in someone’s life, it was all worth it. I am so moved and feel so incredibly lucky and blessed to be surrounded by so many people who are not only talented beyond words and positive beyond measure, but possess boundless selflessness and generosity and unabashedly pour out love in everything they do. They give me hope that despite everything that goes on in the world — there is far more beauty and hope than we’re sometimes led to believe.
Our cast and crew is composed primarily of immigrants, and our shows took place on July 1st, meaning we were in America on Canada Day. The irony was not lost on us. But as I further reflected, I realized that this is precisely what Canada means to me, especially as a second-generation immigrant. On the surface, Canada is a beautiful country and a place of opportunity and promise of a better tomorrow. But what makes it the Canada I love so much is that it is composed of people from all walks of life with big and glowing hearts who simply desire to make an impact on the world as they know it, that they’re willing to put everything on the line to make it happen.
And in that little theatre in San Francisco, we made it happen. We put on the best two shows we have ever done, and ended up selling out the theatre both times. We even had to add extra seats until we reached fire hazard capacity in the evening show. Can you imagine? I still get emotional looking back on the journey we’ve gone through over the last few months, but I chuckle/get shivers when I read over the lyrics Mikey and I had written back in 2012. There is no way we could have predicted this turn of events, so it is clear to me that everything happens truly for a reason, and to be frank — God has a bit of a sense of humour.
In our Finale, we wrote (and sing), “Not everything can be perfect — but we commit to see it through. Whatever you write is a choice you make, it all depends on you! Write straight with crooked lines, cherish the moment while you can. Every little thing counts, aligned with the Author’s plan.”
Like what??? Chills. And finally —
“We made it through to where we are; we have come so far! Cause everything happens for a reason, it made us who we are. Ups and downs, twists and turns, filled my story with these words.
