I was born in Guam. Growing up, I lived in a neighborhood where all the houses were owned by my aunts and uncles and you could hear me and all my cousins playing in the streets throughout the entire day. My parents understood that in order to give me more opportunities, we would have to move to the mainland, so we traveled to California when I was five and moved to other states since my father was deployed in the military. Finally, I settled in Texas where I established many meaningful relationships and found my passions such as playing the ukulele and piano and creating ASL covers of songs for the deaf.

Before I went into kindergarten, my mom actually taught me the ASL alphabet. She used it a lot to teach her kindergarten class the alphabet. So since I was already familiar with ASL, I decided to learn it in high school.

After taking the ASL class in high school, I began to fall in love with ASL. It is an interactive language you use your eyes, mouth, certain facial expressions and, of course, your hands to fully communicate. It is also an awesome language that can actually paint a picture of what you want to say without actually speaking. It also works so well with songs too.

I remember in ASL 3 we had this project where we signed songs in ASL. It was awesome how the beat of the song matched with the signs. I loved it so much, so I made some videos of me signing certain songs that I liked.

My experience of playing instruments helped a lot with making the ASL covers of songs. Since with instruments, in order to create a song, you need to follow a certain beat and hit the right note at the right time. It is kind of the same with signs. It might be challenging to get the ASL interpretation and the song to match up, but it all works smoothly in the end.

While I was in ASL, I was in the American Sign Language Honor Society. We volunteered at some deaf events, went to socials, and even babysat some deaf children. Every time I volunteered, I met so many wonderful deaf people who have overcome so many obstacles. I want to continue to meet more and learn about their experiences even when I am in college.