My parents came to the US on student visas and learned to navigate a new country to gain citizenship. They were sold the idea of opportunity - to build a life anew. Although they faced many prejudices, they succeeded. Their hard work and sacrifice provided my sister and I a solid foundation to build off of.

As First Generation Taiwanese Americans we navigated our own challenges of walking the line between two cultures - never feeling American enough with our peers at school and never feeling Asian enough for our communities at home.

I often struggled with figuring out where I fit in. I wrestled with the idea of pursuing my own dreams and ambitions, along with the guilt for not wanting to go down the path of academia that would lead to a more stable, safe, career path.

I took on a part time job where I could head to the hospital on short notice. There were many hospital visits and trips home during the two years that followed.

In March of 2020, I went to Taiwan with my sister to see my mom. The doctors here told her that there was nothing left they could do for her, so she went back home in search of a more holistic approach. The time change and lack of access to medical marijuana, which helped ease her pain, made her stay in Taiwan difficult and it took its toll on her body.

We arrived just before my sister’s birthday and we lost her on the 20th, just a few days after mine.

It was one of the most crushing moments of my life, and I really struggled to process my grief after she passed.
We learned after her cremation that her bones were incredibly healthy and she would have lived a long life, had she not gotten cancer.

In the aftermath of it all, I also learned that my mom had left my sister and I some accounts - one of which had been set aside to be used for further education purposes. Although that initially added to my guilt, I thought about one of the final things she said to me. 

She told me: Do what makes you happy.

During that period, I reflected often on my childhood - many of my friends growing up were also First Generation kids and I saw a lot of them choose either one culture or the other - either American or Asian.
I wanted to figure out a way to combine both of them and pull elements from each that could be more than; to use our differences and the fact that we had to learn both cultures as a superpower, not as a disadvantage.

How could I integrate all of these things into a fulfilling life? 

The answer I came to was to do something more than myself.

I used the inheritance my mother left me and set to work. What would have gone to physical therapy school went instead to building up this space, a place where people like me could feel comfortable being themselves.

That’s how Luna Cat Collective was born.

It was out of a desire to not only create a third, safe space, but also grow the local community through partnerships with small businesses.
I wanted to add value to the world by helping cats and people heal together in a calm and welcoming environment that also provided the opportunity for cats to find their forever homes.
It is a celebration of blending the cultures I grew up with together, of being both Asian & American, of being enough.

This community cat cafe holds a lot of emotional weight for me - it is my way of honoring everything my parents did for me growing up. What my parents granted me was the option to pursue what I wanted to do in life, not just the path of 9-5 to survive and exist.

This endeavor is one of the hardest things I’ve ever worked on and persevered through. It’s my homage to my mom’s last message to me, and a call back to my Taiwanese roots as the first ever cat cafe was opened in Taiwan.

This space was built for us to heal, grow, and learn together and I’d love to see it survive and thrive for years to come. The learning curve for opening a brick and mortar has been incredibly steep, and I am adding more skills and tools to my toolkit each and every day.

We truly would not be here without all of you, and any contribution made to Luna Cat gives us more time to learn, adjust, and become the best cat cafe possible for all of you in this community and for the cats.

Thank you for reading this far, and for all of your support along this journey.

You all are what makes Luna Cat a Collective.