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Dissecting feelings after my NYC trip

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Dissecting feelings after my NYC trip Hey guys! Trip recap/brain dump for you… From attending the Asian American Foundation Awards with the CEO of YouTube and my fellow AAPI creators to watching both the Michael movie and MJ the Musical on Broadway, this month has me thinking a lot about my upbringing. I’ve been finding myself on the verge of tears more often than I’d like. A little backstory: you may or may not know, but I’m a huge MJ fan – oddly, a late stage one. I “discovered” him in high school during the 2003 Martin Bashir special that was meant to totally destroy Michael, but for some reason I saw nothing but a really talented performer. And that’s when my obsession with all things MJ began. Read all the books, bought all the CDs, and studied his performances bc I was a girl on a mission to learn the moonwalk! I ended up doing a dance to ‘Beat It’ for the talent portion of the Miss Teen Chinatown pageant and I really do think THAT is what tipped the scales in my favor! Anyway, watching Michael was beautifully nostalgic but when Joe Jackson came on the screen, the things he said reminded me so much of my dad that I was holding back tears the entire movie. Growing up my dad yelled at me when I hit a “lousy” shot during tennis practice, he yelled at me when I couldn’t solve a math problem, and he yelled at me so much that becoming a perfectionist was the only way I knew how to be. Later on in life when I finally rebelled and didn’t follow his plan for me to be a doctor, our relationship broke into pieces. The most hurtful part is that my “success” today is viewed in a similar way to how Joe Jackson viewed Michael’s success: a result of his doing. I want to be clear that I love both my mom and dad and I am grateful for the way I was raised because it made me FIGHT to become exactly who I am today. I don’t wish to change my upbringing but I do wish to have a better relationship with my dad before it’s too late. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cassey Ho (@blogilates) On a slightly diff note: NYC was great! Food was great! But the trip left me with a lot of feelings to dissect. From attending multiple glamorous events to reflecting on MJ’s tragic end, I’m thinking a lot about human nature and how we treat people based on who we think they are vs who they really are. Hey guys! Trip recap/brain dump for you… From attending the Asian American Foundation Awards with the CEO of YouTube and my fellow AAPI creators to watching both the Michael movie… Cassey{authorlink}https://www.blogilates.com/blog/thinking-about-my-upbringing/Blogilates The official blog of Cassey Ho https://i0.wp.com/www.blogilates.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/fav-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1

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Choosing my passion over my parents’ life plan

Choosing my passion over my parents’ life plan Growing up a child of immigrant parents who escaped a war-torn country, my mom and dad instilled in my sister and I perseverance and resilience. They taught me to work hard, study hard and do everything with excellence…which made me a great student and obedient daughter…until the thing I wanted to do excellently, was not in their life plan for me. For so many years I felt so lost, so broken and so angry. It was a decision between my passion or my parents – and I chose my passion. It broke our relationship and to this day, remains the thing I still cry about every time I think about it, talk about it, or write about it. Like literally right now. Ugh. As I get older, as my parents get older, and as the past becomes more of a scar than a fresh wound, I find myself trying to heal by trying to understand them. They wanted my sister and I to be safe. To be financially secure. To not suffer. To have stability. Things that were robbed from from them. Telling my parents I was going to pursue fashion design was none of those things. But the more they told me NO the more it lit my fire. I’m extremely grateful to my parents because had they not done what they did, I would not have fought as hard as I did to get where I am today. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cassey Ho (@blogilates) I want to thank you for supporting me all of these years, whether it was by doing a Blogilates video on YouTube or by purchasing something from POPFLEX (or recently Blogilates!). Know that you have the power to change the trajectory of someone’s life, as you did mine, by the choices you make. I say this because as a consumer, our loudest “vote” comes in the form of a dollar. Corporations, at the end of the day, make decisions heavily influenced, if not totally influenced, by numbers. Now more than ever, if you have the means to support minority owned brands that make products you love, let your dollar do the speaking. Know that your collective choices are POWERFUL and that THIS is how they listen. Also WOW how has this January been 847 days long!?!? Chuc Mung Nan Moi (Vietnamese) Gung Hay Fat Choy (Chinese) Happy Lunar New Year Growing up a child of immigrant parents who escaped a war-torn country, my mom and dad instilled in my sister and I perseverance and resilience. They taught me to work… Cassey{authorlink}https://www.blogilates.com/blog/lunar-new-year-2025/Blogilates The official blog of Cassey Ho https://i0.wp.com/www.blogilates.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/fav-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1