Inspiring the Brilliance

When I was a teenager, I loved to draw stage costumes, and my artistry was definitely inspired by the anime and video games I grew up enjoying. When I returned to my home state of North Carolina during the Summer of 2021, I discovered that my old bedroom was very much like that of a museum. The walls were covered with photos of the posters I used to spend hours working on in high school. Seeing these photos brought me back to a dream I had of being a costume designer for Japanese pop music artist, Ayumi Hamasaki, specifically for her first Western concert tour. There were a lot of barriers that prevented me from being able to make that dream come true though. I was low-income, I had no real access to taking even a basic Japanese course because of how rural my hometown community was, and I didn’t have a single art teacher who really understood my style or even tried to embrace it. When I made the decision to go to college, I decided on a major that I felt would earn money (initially, Psychology) as opposed to making me happy.

I buried that unrealized dream many, many years ago because it was so out of reach for me, a little Black girl from Eastern North Carolina. I guess that’s why whenever I work with students, I try really hard – almost too hard – to find opportunities that will help them realize their “wild dreams.” I try to find a way to make up for what I didn’t have, and give it to someone else.

When I returned to Texas, it suddenly dawned on me that dreams only die when we allow them to. And although it may look different from what I originally dreamed of, The Lit Sensei Merch, is an evolution of that dream.