PROGRAMMING & HOBBIES
Off the clock is where the rest of me lives. Five languages I love slipping between, a piano I waited half a lifetime to play, and somewhere new to go every year.
PIANO
Playing the piano was a childhood dream I couldn't afford, so I gave it to myself as an adult instead. For most of my life I'd assumed I was tone-deaf. I can still picture standing in front of my elementary-school class, singing hopelessly off the beat, with no idea what a note even was. So when my teacher said I was the best adult student she'd had, it did more than flatter me; it made me believe her. Now I sit down to practise every day, and some of the best minutes are simply the ones with my fingers moving across the keys.
LANGUAGES
Half the fun of a conversation, for me, is switching mid-sentence among the five languages I live in — Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, and Japanese. Each is a doorway into a culture I want to know: French, so I can bake my way through its patisserie; Chinese and Japanese, so I always have a reason to go back for the food. And the more languages I learn, the more I notice how differently each one carries a thought which, unexpectedly, sent me back to my own. Somewhere along the way I found a beauty in Vietnamese, my mother tongue, that I'd taken for granted for years.
TRAVELING & PHOTOGRAPHY
Once a year I pack a bag and go somewhere new — to slow down, meet people, eat dishes I can't pronounce yet, and practise the languages I've been quietly collecting. Sunset over the sea, sunrise over a mountain range, all of it turned into memories I get to keep and share with the people I love. A few of those views live here .
