Extraordinary New Year, Extraordinary New Meaning For 'Citizen' Sister

Start the Lunar New Year with a reset that actually means something. I’m pulling back the curtain on why I paused Citizen Sister, how the word citizen changed under our feet, and what it takes to build a show that holds both connection and discomfort with honesty. This is a candid look at belonging in 2026—where passports once felt like keys, where perception can override documents, and where safety is felt in the body long before it’s written in law.

I share a personal shift that reframed the entire season: an everyday interaction that stung, the story I told myself about it, and the new information that turned judgment into compassion. That three-second pause—choosing not to take it personally, imagining a life I couldn’t see—has become my most practical tool for global citizenship. It doesn’t excuse harm; it widens context. And it’s the spirit I’ll bring to future interviews, music, and community stories: asking each guest what belonging means to them, where fear shows up, and how art and culture can create room for all of us.

You’ll also hear what’s ahead: the Asian Arts and Heritage Festival on Bainbridge Island this May, from karaoke in a theater to heritage nights, film and panel storytelling, language classes, and a bigger finale at Waterfront Park. We’re inviting artists, vendors, food vendors, and performers to help shape a month of creative, inclusive celebration. If the question on your mind is who gets to feel safe and seen, you’re in the right place. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs a gentler lens, and leave a review with your definition of a global citizen—what does it mean to you?

Transcript

Why The Show Took A Pause

The Weight Of The Word Citizen

From Global Traveler To New Fears

Rethinking Citizenship And Belonging

A Lesson In Everyday Compassion

Choosing Not To Take It Personally

Looking Ahead: Community And Festival

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Hello, Citizen Sister listeners. Welcome to the Lunar New Year 2026. It has been a while, and I am so happy to be back on this platform of my dear and wonderful podcast and all of you listeners with Citizen Sister. It's been a minute, and I am going to call this uh day of February the 17th the beginning of my year because I just the holidays got a little crazy. It was like so much going on, and between our Christmas show, gift of giving, which was a huge success, and birthday parties, and Christmas, and New Year's, and Valentine's Day, and another birthday, and so many things were going on. Um, and I just needed to take a moment to refresh and restart and reassess. Um, and I know for some of my hardcore listeners out there who have asked me about the pause that I have taken with Citizen Sister and even the clunkiness of you know releasing an episode and then being MIA for a while and releasing an episode, I um I want to be like really transparent and say that that is a, you know, it's it's been a journey and there's a reason for it. And at the very end of the of 2025 and coming into this new year, um I took pause from the podcast because I wanted to, oh, just have a think about um what this podcast is and what this platform is, because something came to my attention that was not my intention for when I originally made this podcast, and it had to do with the title of my podcast, Citizen Sister. Um when I created this podcast three plus years ago and I called it Citizen Sister, it was because I consider myself a citizen of the world because of all my travels and all the people that I meet from around the world, because of my own ethnic um ethnicity and background, which is a mix of different cultures. I and I all these things made me feel like I was a global citizen. And it seemed to me that the people that I'm closest to in life and the people I'm drawn towards to have conversations with shared that. And I wanted to share that here on this platform. What I wasn't maybe quite ready for was that the word citizen in 2025 and into 2026 has a different weight to it. And that did come to my attention because of some inquiries about what my podcast was about because of the word citizen. And I really stay away from politics on this podcast because for that very reason, because I believe in we're all citizens of the world. I want to be that area that is not that is inclusive of everyone. And um especially on this platform. But the word citizen started to mean something kind of w it had some weight to it, especially, you know, and before anyone comes after me and and says, Oh, are you talking about being legal or illegal or you know, citizen of the US or ICE or any of that stuff, this is not what I'm I'm not gonna talk about that stuff specifically, but I am going to talk about fear. Um the word citizen has now been one that has, I don't know, created both a divide with people in terms of pride and fear, and made me sit with the question, what does it mean to actually be a citizen of anything? And, you know, I think it's a really easy thing for me to say citizen of the world and feel very kumbaya about it because you know I'm trying to find the through line of what connects us, and I still want this platform to be that, but I don't want to shy away either from the things that um that are harder to talk about as well. And I sat and contemplated about this for a while in and it's why I took a pause from the podcast because I was like, you know, I interview people or I talk about things, but the one thing that I really wanted to refocus my interviews and and subject matters around are how specifically my guests and the topics I even talk about are about connecting us to that word citizen in the global sense and defining what that word citizen means and and how being a citizen, not a citizen of a country or a tribe or you know, or even a belief system, frankly, that but really what does it mean to be a global citizen and a citizen of this earth? And um and I want to refocus all my conversations to be a little bit more pointed in that way, and from the from the beginning of an episode, even not just the fire round questions. And um I came to this because when I thought of that word, and when I thought of the title of the podcast and what I was creating here in this space, I, you know, it really was a feel-good thing. It really was from my experiences living all over the world and and finding these through lines of connection, and and that's all very beautiful, but I still have to take note of what that word, the actual English word citizen, might feel like to people right now. And in this country, I'm in the US, for some of the people that I know who listen abroad. Um I think, and I just want to speak for myself right now, but there's always been a safety in roaming around the world as a global traveler that I used to be, more so than now, um, of having a passport, a US passport, of having that freedom. Um I remember when I was in Miss Saigon and we would take, you know, we were in Germany and we were so close to all these other countries, and I remember different cast members not having who did not have a US passport or a European passport, not being able to take little day trips that we could take because they didn't have that kind of freedom with the passport they had. And you know, it's something that I took for granted, you know, and and I remember that giving me pause even back then. And now um being in my own country in the US, um, that passport doesn't really mean anything when we are so easily judged in this current climate by how we look, um, how we are perceived. And and I know, I know that that has always been true to an extent, but I also know from friends, family members, um very close to home, that there's a different fear. It's it's a different fear, not feeling like you might have rights within your own country where you've always felt safe. And I just want to sit with that for a moment about that word citizen and what that means right now here where I live, um that I myself have had to take a pause um in going into certain situations because of how I look in my own country, um, because of the worry of people thinking that I'm not a citizen. And I guess it's just a new fear that has uh come into my world. And this is not, as I said, about politics. This is not whether or not you believe some people have a right to be here and others don't. Uh this is just me speaking on my own fear. Fear for my family, fear for my friends who might feel the same way. Uh it's given me really great, you know, grounds for conversation with my husband who is Caucasian, and for us to have real conversations surrounding that fear. Because I think if you're a person of color in this country, uh this certain parts of this fear are not new. Um you know, uh racial discrimination um is not new to me. And it's certainly not new to me to walk into places and feel uncomfortable based on how I look and the color of my skin. So that's not new to me. But I think one really powerful conversation that I've had um at home is and with my husband is that that fear now is something that is a little bit more uh visible to him when it comes to, oh my gosh, it you know, to actual actually somebody questioning whether or not I'm a s a citizen, you know, based on how I look um within the US is is is a new conversation. And so I just wanted to let you all know that because of this new weight to the word citizen, I yes, as I said, I want to refocus some of my conversations to be more about what it is to be a global citizen. And with that new kind of that new weight to that word in relative to my experience and uh to the experiences of my guests, and to start our conversations with that um with that theme. And um and yeah, and and to use this platform to have that conversation. There was one guest, my first guest, which was my sister, who was the only one who answered that question at the end in my fire round questions of what does it mean to you to be a citizen of the world? And she said um to be born. Just if you are born, then you have a right to be here, just being born. And I do believe that in my heart, we all have a right to exist if we are born, and that truly does make us citizens of the world. And I um and I'm grateful for that message today. So I hope that you are as excited as I am to take this journey of finding what connects us. We will still have fun on this podcast, don't worry. I just wanted to let you all know where my thoughts were about this, and also um to just let you know that we are gonna have some deep conversations and some light conversations and great conversations that help connect us to that message, and that that message will be a little bit more defined moving forward. So, on that note, today I have no guest, it's just me, but I wanted to talk about something that I think is very much something that brings us um connection that is a global truth as we walk through the world. So I was talking to an acquaintance, and it was just um, you know, kind of a workslash business, I guess you could call it business meeting about something. And as they were talking to me, I felt like they didn't want to be there. I felt like I said the wrong thing. I felt like they were while they're normally a warm person, there was just this feeling of them not liking me. That's how I interpreted it. And I sat with it and all day long I was like, God, they were kind of rude, and it just made me feel bad. And I talked to my husband about it, I contemplated it, I thought, God, what did I do? What did I do? And then I started like, you know, really digging into, well, did I say something or did, you know, or why do I deserve that? I've I've done so much for them in this work situation, etc. And I I just couldn't erase the fact that it made me feel bad. And feeling bad brought me to a zone of like feeling a little bitter, maybe, um, feeling like, why did I waste two hours of my time, you know, talking to this person and they are treating me this particular way. And and I know we have all been there. And um later I I found out uh the reason that they were in that mood and why they were treating me a certain kind of way, because as it turns out, they were treating a lot of people a certain kind of way, and I found out that they were going through something pretty bad in life, and it it just completely shifted my focus and my being to compassion. It shifted my focus and my being into understanding that people are walking through this world just like I am, and we don't know why, how, or what has is happening in their lives of what we don't see. And I know I'm speaking in real general terms because I'm I'm not trying to out anyone that I've interacted with as of late. Um, but it was such a beautiful, beautiful lesson to me because I mean I had taken a w over a week of of just really not feeling good about this relationship, and that one shift, that one little bit of knowledge, of understanding how bad this person's life circumstance was, and that pause to say that's not how I've ever known them before. And now they're this specific way. And I went into this whole thing that was all about me and all about how I felt in that moment, and I didn't really take the moment to think that maybe they're going through something. And honestly, I think the message for me, the very powerful message for me, was that it and the beautiful lesson was that I could I went through the rest of my the next three days after that, finding out um what was going on for that person, really looking at people and hearing them in that moment and knowing that if something felt negative, that it might not have anything to do, not only not have anything to do with me, but it might not define who they are at all if I if I don't know them specifically, it it might just be a bad day. There might be a whole history behind someone's behavior and and why they're talking a certain way, acting a certain way, why they might need compassion in that moment. And if I don't know, if I don't actually know what they're going through and I hear them at face value, that I have the power to take pause and decide for myself in that moment if I want to take that personally, or if I want to just give a second and some and and yeah, and some compassion just within myself to look at them and say that might just be a bad day, that might just be a bad week, it might just be a bad year. It really truly, I'm sharing this with all of you because boy, as we go out into the world and we meet people from all different walks of life with all different kinds of moods, with all different kinds of beliefs, we just don't know what somebody else has been through that has brought them to that moment. And it doesn't excuse really terrible, terrible behavior, but it it honestly can give us pause about how we judge that terrible behavior. And it's helped me um have a better understanding of the people around me, of even myself, because sometimes I don't realize that my bad day is being misunderstood by others as well, you know, so it can give you pause on both sides. So I just wanted to share that. I hope that wasn't too heavy, but I hope that that is a connecting conversation for all of you to maybe take a three-second pause when you meet somebody that feels a little off, or even if it's it's acquaintance or a friend or somebody even at the grocery store, and you think, eh, that feels kind of gross. That maybe that little moment you can take three seconds and say, it might just be a really bad day. They might just be going through something that I have no idea about, and look at them with a little bit more compassion. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I can't wait to bring you more episodes, this lunar new year celebration um moving forward into 2026. I hope that you are all doing wonderfully. I will um share more stories about what happened ever since last October and the Filipino Women's Network and my um wonderful um awardee uh cohorts that I would like to bring to Citizen Sister to interview. I also can't wait to share more music with you and some projects coming up. And of course, the Asian Arts and Heritage Festival is coming soon in May. So if you're in um Washington State or if you're even out of state and out of the country, please come. You are welcome here on Bainbridge Island to join our many, many, many events, some of which are karaoke kickoff, the largest ever karaoke party that we will have ever had or seen on Bainbridge Island, which we believe will be in a movie theater here and hosted by none other than uh Bo Ross, uh Bainbridge Island's number one karaoke DJ. Um we have the Asian Monologues My Show, which I'm really, really excited about, a Melanesian heritage event at Bima, and the Strawberry Um Picker stories, um which will be told in both film and a panel discussion, all at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art on May 17th. We, of course, have the Strawberry Festival on May 23rd at the Filipino American Community Hall, hosted by the Filipino American Community of Bainbridge Island, of which I am also a board member and our community relations officer. Shout out, Phil Am Community here. We also have a Japanese Heritage Night that we are putting together. We have, oh gosh, there's so many other events. And our festival finale on May 31st at the Waterfront Park. We have moved to a bigger venue this year. And we are looking for submissions for artists, for um vendors, for food vendors, and for perfor for performers as well. We're offering Asian American, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander language classes at the Bainbridge Island Senior Center Community Center. I think so far we know that we're offering a Japanese class. I'm hoping that we will offer a Chinese language class and a Japanese language class, and um and so stay tuned for that. We have a new website launch, which I will tell you about in my next episode or at least in a shout-out. And we also have our Arts and Humanities Bainbridge Ruby 40th year anniversary gala at Bainbridge Performing Arts, which is really, really exciting. So I will deep dive into all these different events. And by the way, sorry, the gala is on March 12th, and it is a fundraiser and it will help us fund our Asian Arts and Heritage Festival as well. So please stay tuned for all these wonderful things and the deep dive on all these wonderful things. And thank you again for tuning in to Citizen Sister. I love you all. I am hoping that you're having a wonderful new year so far, and I hope this was a connecting conversation. Peace out.