Everyday Extraordinary: Christine Lee

My family is very traditionally Korean in the sense that they expected me to be a lawyer, a doctor, or the CEO of a tech company. Growing up, I was the kid in class who would cry if I got an A minus. I wanted to be successful and make them proud, and I worked hard at school and in my career.

I followed the traditional path: I went to UC Berkeley, got a job at Microsoft, and lived in New York City right after college. I was the dream Korean daughter, and on top of it all, I was happy. I was even on track for a promotion, and I worked around the clock to make it happen.

Even so, after a couple of years, I realized there was more I wanted to do. I began taking flying trapeze classes at Chelsea Piers for fun, and I fell in love with everything about it. I started to wonder about my purpose.

My flying trapeze friends invited me on a week-long retreat in the Caribbean for a flying trapeze intensive. It was a truly life-changing experience. The last night I was there, the head of the trapeze program pulled me aside and offered me a job in their troupe. I remember laughing at him: I lived in New York, I worked in tech and business, and I didn’t consider myself a performer. 

I was shocked by how emotional I was leaving the Caribbean. I could tell something had shifted in me and had attached me to this place and this life. I cried when the plane took off. 

When I returned to New York, opened my laptop, and saw the pile of work from the week I had missed, the truth of what I had just experienced came crashing into my awareness. Now that I had had a taste of what life could be outside the narrow path I had been following, I realized I had to experience more.

I opened up my personal email, and at the very top was an offer letter from the circus group. I had never taken a crazy leap of faith in my life, but that day, I walked into my boss’s office, resigned, and made a plan to move. A month later, I was officially back in the Caribbean. 

The next two years were the best of my life. I performed all over the world, became an expert at my craft, and met the most incredible people. From then on, circus became a core part of my identity. 

Eventually, I did return to the states and to my career in tech. As you can imagine, the circus does not pay nearly as much as the tech industry. Of course, after a while, I felt the call to perform again. This time, I needed a financially secure plan. 

After working part-time as a consultant and part-time as a performer, I was finally able to make the leap into full-time circus work. I assembled other minority female performers, and we built out a group of circus performers and created our own small business. Today, we have over 100 performers in our portfolio and we perform all over: corporate gigs, residencies at restaurants and clubs, private events. This endeavor brings in my business background and allows me to make a living as a performer. 

So many people ask me, “If I do a job that I love, will I be happy?” And the answer is: I don’t know, are you happy inside? If you could be happy in a job you don’t love, then you may be even happier in a job you do love, but the job itself isn’t going to fix everything for you. For me, happiness truly comes from within: your relationships, your family, your mental health — everything else is bonus, and everything else is adjustable.