Author: Susan Lee

I stood at the foot of a 52 foot Bodhisattva carved into the sheer side of the Maiji Shan grotto, and I thought, “I lived. If nothing else, I lived.” I had been feeling guilty about spending the money to go on this Grand Grotto Tour of China, thinking I should save some money for the eventual trip home. But standing at the foot of this carving that had been there for more than a thousand years, I just kept thinking, “I lived”. In 2012, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 aggressive breast cancer. Luckily, it was caught very early,…

Instinct – 1. a way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is not learned: a natural desire or tendency that makes you want to act in a particular way; 2. something you know without learning it or thinking about it; 3. a natural ability. There are so many voices inside of our heads sometimes – previous teachers, previous (or current) lovers, parents, siblings, etc., ad nauseum – that is it hard to hear that little, tiny important voice way down underneath it all. And that voice is instinct. Instinct is when you hear that tiny voice that sounds scary and…

I left a restrictive, controlling marriage ten years ago this year. I had spent almost sixteen years being told what I could and could not do, down to what comic books I could and could not read. Eventually, I realized this was not healthy and left to build a new life. I decided at that point to do what I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it and never allow myself to be in a situation where the choices I had were not my own. And I’ve spent the last ten years doing just that. And as I…

Last month, I was writing as I was taking a giant leap of faith – taking a job teaching students in China how to make comic books for three weeks. What resulted was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had. When we arrived in China, we were treated like royalty. The company that hired us paid for everything – our rooms, our transportation, all of our meals, most of our tourist trips. They even paid us a stipend on top of everything else. Sounded too good to be true. Luckily, it was true and the company was amazing.…

As creatives, our lives are continual leaps of faith. But sometimes it’s hard to tell when we should leap and when we should just hang out and wait for the next chasm to open up. However, I might be the wrong person to ask. I’m a big believer in leaping. I’d rather leap and fail spectacularly than never leap at all. All of these leaps have led me to some of the most amazing adventures in my life. Leaping requires really trusting that voice inside that so many of us ignore. It’s that voice that’s under the crazy voice that…

I recently was teaching a private student on the basics of creating a comic book. He had expressed when we began that he was short of money and sort of sacrificing everything to study with me. I had planned to have several students but he ended up as my only student, ensuring that he got more than his money’s worth from every session we had. As we finished the first month, he said he thought he might not be able to continue due to his financial situation. I told him I sympathized as I was struggling to make ends meet…

I have been lucky to have had several wonderful mentors in my professional life, all of whom have helped me become better at what I’m doing and have given me a boost of confidence I desperately needed. One of my first mentors was my friend, Richard Tatum. He’s a brilliant director and just a great guy. When I first started directing theater, I had no idea what I was doing because I had just kind of stumbled into it. He was co-artistic director at a theater company and invited me to join. He was a great resource when I wasn’t…

Sometimes, when you’re living your life and things are kind of awesome, life kicks you in the ‘nads and, suddenly, you’re lost and wondering what the hell happened. Whether it’s an illness, an injury, an accident, the loss of a loved one, whatever the setback is, the hardest thing is to figure out how to come back from it. For me, that was a Stage IIa breast cancer diagnosis in March, 2012. Just as my directing career was looking promising, as everything in my life was becoming exactly what I wanted. I won’t get into the details of treatment because…