
This dream project all began in 2010, when I was asked to describe my perfect day:
I wake up in a home near the mountains and sea, surrounded by family and friends. I start the day with sunshine on my face and the sound of birds chirping and waves crashing on the shore. I look outside my window and see everyone around me abuzz– the neighborhood is waking up too.
Who are my neighbors?
My most favorite people in the world: entrepreneurs and artists. Add in the geeks, techies, scientists and the alternatives of every discipline and you get a hotbed of the most interesting, enabling people there could be (at least to me).
Wow, what an everyday environment to cherish and grow in.
I knew then, as I know now, that for this perfect day to become my everyday reality, massive changes needed to take place, and that I wouldn’t be able to do them alone.
At the end of the day, what ultimately makes me happy is being in a community that I can contribute to with all of me (academically, socially, artistically, spiritually), and vice versa–it nourishes all of me as well.
I am an artist in my deepest of hearts, and I am easily seduced by the idea of running off into the wilderness to live a simple, quiet life. But as someone who grew up in the Philippines, my reality has been one doused in poverty, frustration and lack of resources, and this has made me always look out for the other: what can I do to help? How can I grow to my highest potential and bring along with me as many people as possible? I can’t be happy just doing my own thing in a corner.
And so back to community. Build something true, scalable, and includes a lot of people.