These past few months have been very interesting for me as I went through some significant transitions in my life. I moved to a new city, started living by myself, began full time employment, finally achieved financial independence (thanks mom & dad etc. etc.) Here are some updates on my life and a few things that have been on my mind.

Seattle/Puget Sound

I currently live in Bellevue, a satellite city 20~30 minute drive east of Seattle proper. It’s a nice and homely city with its own downtown area. Compared to Seattle, Bellevue is more sparesely populated and less hectic which I enjoy, but that also means I do miss out a bit on Seattle’s vibrant culture and nightlife. I currently live in a studio apartment. It feels cozy and so far I haven’t found any reason to need more space.

“Nice bedroom dude!” “Thanks - but that’s actually my entire apartment”

Work life

I’ve learned a lot these past few months since I began working - probably enough to fill up at least a few blog posts, but I’ll keep it short here:

• As a fresh grad with essentially zero professional experience, it is very humbling working with people who have 5/10/20 years of experience and industry knowledge. Their mentorship and guidance is probably one the most valuable things I take away from my job
• Continuing from the previous point, I frequently got stuck and made newbie mistakes. At first I was scared to seem lost or worse - incompetent; I eventually realized that it is totally normal and ok to ask for (a lot of) help. This way, I can learn to solve the problem by myself the next time I run into it.
• My role is a heavily technical role and obviously technical skill is important, but it’s also crucial to be well rounded. Good communication skills, understanding business impact/user scenarios, time & task management, and various other “soft” skills will go a long way

It’s still a learning process and will be for probably a very long time - that’s what makes it exciting.

Living by myself

Living by myself is something I always wanted to try, I’m still undecided on whether I like it or not yet. I enjoy having all the personal space I need to relax but occasionally it does feel isolating. However, it is nice to have friends in the area though which makes up for that (shoutout afk, jouyang, other Seattle homies).

Financial independence

Wow. Eye-opening. Now that I’m responsible for paying my own bills, I appreciate my parents putting a roof over my head for all of those years a lot more and realize how privileged I am to have had that support (not that I didn’t before!) After paying rent, utilities, loans, car payments, insurance, etc. suddenly that Leica M does not seem like such a tempting purchase anymore.

Exploring

Seattle is surrounded by nature. If you drive for an hour in any direction (aside from into the ocean I guess), chances are, you probably passed by a state park, a mountain, and a forest - which is a huge difference coming from the neverending urban sprawl of Los Angeles. But if nature is not your thing, there is a large variety of interesting places to check out and things to do within Seattle and surrounding area. Vancouver and Portland are not too far if you have a car.

Here are some pics of my exploring:

Wrap up

I would be lying if I said I never missed the comfort of being in a familiar environment. I also have a lot less spare time now compared to my student life and ultimately let go of a few things I was passionate about. However, life is about embracing the unknown (#deep… haha). The changes and transitions in my life have been great to me so far and I look forward to continued new experiences and new adventures in Seattle and beyond!