Who am I?

Origin Story

Born in Panama on Christmas 1997, I was destined to stick out wherever I went. Within the locals, I was the one small Asian kid who was way too nice to everyone. Within the small Korean community, I was a member of one of the five "permanently staying" families. When I was a wee baby, I longed for familiarity in a home that did not feel like home. The everchanging but close knit Korean community gave me a much needed sense of comfort, and it is probably the reason why I value friendships as much as I do now. I truly believe home is where the people I love are.

Fortunately, I eventually learned to appreciate the unwanted attention. I don't mind being put in the spotlight, and I am especially good at doing what I want without worrying about what others think about me. A lot of people perceive this as being "unconditionally me" and "not caring what other people think about me," but this is only half true. I still seek validation whenever I do things, probably due to my desire to be appreciated.

Most people talk about their immigration story as if they were put in unfamiliar jungle - Spartan style - and had to carve their place in the community despite being made fun of for having a smelly lunch box. Mine was the opposite: I went from being the minority of the minorities to being in a city of Koreans in a nation of immigrants, and everyone had seaweed in their lunch meal. It wasn't hard making friends: I played Maplestory like every other kid while still having that exotic flair from being birthed in a rainforest. I spent the majority of my adolescence biking around the neighborhood and shaping my own opinions through nightly debates in the jacuzzi. I tried extra hard to preserve my uniqueness and consequently developed a subconscious distaste towards conformity which I seemed to notice extensively in Korean communities.

Here and Now

Some short descriptions: ENFP, Vata, artsy, daring, likes to think a lot, malleable.

I have a dynamic mind. I have genuine interest for so many fields, while not being specialized in one. Most people would complain about how much this sucks, but I disagree. For better or worse, I find myself being very relationship driven, as opposed to career driven. While the inability to hone in on one skill puts me in a career disadvantage in this specialty focused industry, having my foot dipped in every pool allows me to have interesting conversations with many people from different fields. When I get lucky, such friend invites me to join them in their passion, and I get to check one more thing off my bucket list. For a middle class 24 year old, I think I have way more life experiences under my belt than others.

My mental bank of trivial knowledge is a fantastic toolkit in a interdisciplinary design field. Whether I am working on making a new immersive experience for the pop up video game museum or a making a interactive piano key staircase, my understanding of how many things work will help me digest the problem definition more effectively and think of out of the box solutions more quickly.

Everyone who has traveled with me has commented on how I am able to turn any situation into an enjoyable one. While I can attribute this quality to my adaptability and ungrounded belief that everything will be fine, I think the main reason I give off that impression is because I enjoy problem solving on the spot. Like the time my backpacking trip was shortened by a forest fire, or the time I lost my passport during my solo trip in St. Petersburg, life is more fun with some unpredictability. Besides, uncertainty is unavoidable anyways (minus the time I lost my passport, totally avoidable).