We’re looking forward to introducing you to Christina Cheng-Patel. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Christina, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Books. I half joke that my goal is to be able to just sit with a cup of tea and read a book cover to cover uninterrupted. No work to attend to. No kids to look after. No imminent emergency needing my attention. Just time to enjoy reading. There is something profoundly peaceful and magical about getting lost in words. There are so many genres to choose from. So many adventures to go on and things to learn. I believe reading exercises our mind in unparalleled ways. One of these days, I will make the choice to slow down and do this self care thing that people speak of and read a book cover to cover.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Christina. I am a mother of 2 boys and 1 rescue pup, daughter of immigrants, pediatric researcher, and founder of a nonprofit called Under My Umbrella. As far as something unique about Under My Umbrella; we are a micro grassroots nonprofit. Zero overhead. Zero margin. 100% volunteer. Open source everything. Majority powered by kind-hearted individuals in our community and supported by local businesses. My hope is that UMU is more than a local nonprofit. I hope that it is a movement. A lifestyle. It is about us as a community connecting with everyone in it and helping those who need it the most. It is about getting involved in whatever capacity we are able and truly being a commUNITY. I hope to highlight that every kind gesture no matter how small it may seem can make an impact. I understand that my nonprofit is small so we are not able to provide the comprehensive resources that many people need but we can stand in the gap, give a little hope, and hold the line until those larger resources can take over. We are often the first responders, the first contact, the ones to establish that initial connection and build trust. Being small makes us agile and responsive so that we can fulfill small urgent needs immediately to prevent the downward spiral that often occurs and leads to homelessness or increased debt. We are proof that when people collaborate and work together, we can help our community in significant ways because the root of all our metrics is kindness. It is hard work but also “heart” work. “Kind” work. The kind of work that makes direct impact.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
My parents taught me directly and indirectly about work and work ethic. Their story is a fairly typical immigrant story. They arrived here with less than $100 between the two of them, dreaming of starting a new life and raising a family in this melting pot of possibilities. Both of them worked 24-7, 365 days a year just so my brother and I could have a very basic and modest childhood. They are the definition of resilience and old fashioned hard work. My father, who is 80 years old, is still working. My mother spends her time serving those in need through volunteering with Under My Umbrella. Both my parents hold advanced degrees but worked in any job that kept our family afloat including opening their own restaurant and working in retail and sales. They taught me that no matter the job, there is a pride and peace at the end of the day when you have earned your dinner, rest, and independence.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I have quite the scars from old wounds and some wounds will always hurt even after they are “healed.” I tend to compartmentalize well so I am able to continue about my daily life as if everything is fine and fully functioning. Few people, not even my family or close friends know the trauma I have experienced because I am still not quite ready to share the extent of it. I believe that our stories are ours to share in our own time when we are ready or not to share at all. It is a choice we make depending on where we are in our healing journey. We have to understand that we are always evolving and learning to be better versions of ourselves and that the things that happened to us whether it is by choice or circumstance does not define us. I realize this is a super vague answer but the unlearning and unconditioning of who we are, what we are supposed to do or not supposed to do, and what we think is our fault or out of our hands, is integral to healing, at least for me. I have also found serving others to be healing. I don’t necessarily have to have experienced exactly what the people my nonprofit helps have experienced to empathize. I find it rehabilitating to my own wounds when I know that I have helped someone or have helped ease their suffering even just a little bit. One of my favorite poets, Rumi, said that you have to break your heart until it opens. We have to allow ourselves to feel even when it hurts so that we can understand. We tend to be distant and impersonal these days. I believe in making outreach and connections more personal because at the end of the day, we are all in this together, and I believe we should make watching over each other a personal matter. Because if something is personal to you, you will make it matter.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Absolutely. I have neither time nor energy nor do I see the benefit of being anything other than my actual self. I do believe that we all have various facets to us and those particular nuances surface depending on the situation. For example, when I am at the pediatric office in my lab coat, I am focused on our studies and our study participants. The brain is switched to researcher mode. Out of the office when I am doing outreach for my nonprofit, I am in full service mode. At home, I am in mom mode. But those are all me. I am as comfortable with research jargon as I am with my teen son’s slang. The more comfortable and accepting we are in our own skin, the more we can accomplish because we are not preoccupied with how we should be or optics, we simply are. We are not spending time to make sure we fit in some pre-determined box or ideal that someone else has. What I hold myself accountable to, I hold my nonprofit to the same standards. I call it H.I.T. since boxing is my preferred stress-reliever. Honesty. Integrity. and Transparency. The public can either accept you or not. The only thing that matters is that you accept yourself. But if you have H.I.T., you have aligned yourself authentically. When we are ourselves and not a representation of ourselves, I believe it removes all the contraints that hold us back and we become unstoppable.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Honestly, burning out. I am going full sprint in everything…parenting, career, and our nonprofit. It is not one of my better traits. I think many people can relate to this urgency. This need to do what we can when we can with the time we are given. But it is of the upmost importance to mitigate that with balance and that is very much a work in progress for me. I am investing time and energy into the foundation of my nonprofit because I believe in the work and the blueprint we have created to help our vulnerable populations through a truly grassroots community driven effort. I do hope to be able to read that book from question 1 cover to cover very soon. In fact, I will make it a priority to do so because I am in this for the long haul.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.under-my-umbrella.org
- Instagram: under_my_umbrella_dfw
- Facebook: UnderMyUmbrellaDFW
