How We Came to Be

Everyone experiences those moments that provide an opportunity to make an impact. Most of the time you see those moments and they pass you by. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’re able to pause and learn from those moments. And even less often, you promise to actually take action. In late 2020 that moment of action happened not just for me, but the founding team here at the familiar feeling.

I had the opportunity to talk with each of them and discuss various things about our backgrounds as part of the Asian-American community, and our sentiment towards the events of the previous year. The idea that prejudice and violent crimes against the AAPI community were rising heavily in response to COVID related fears. The hurt that occurs when you see someone on the news who looks like your family getting murdered just because of their appearance. The shame to see someone who looks like your family as part of the police team responsible for George Floyd’s murder. And finally the sense of confusion because the way many of us in the AAPI community were raised, it’s hard to translate these thoughts and emotions we have always had into words. The nagging truth that Asians are usually bucketed separately from other minority groups in the U.S., and that some are actually happy that way.

Us in The Familiar Feeling are not happy with that idea. We believe strongly that there are more commonalities within individuals and our communities than many people think, and we’re here to help people find those commonalities. Each member of this team is committed to growing their voice and expressing themselves, with the hope that you as a visitor to this site can take something they’ve created and have a moment where you say “Wow. That feels pretty familiar.” If we can get people to say that, then maybe we found that something to help strengthen our community with yours.

The heart of this website will be the weekly blog postings from our team, check it out!

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Maicen Young
Founder, The Familiar Feeling