2021, a retrospective.
A new chapter.
Every four years or so, I opened a new chapter in my life.
When I was 10, I moved to the United States from Korea with my family. Four years later, I moved back to Korea and went to high school in Seoul. Then, I moved back to the US — this time in Berkeley, CA as I started studying computer science in UC Berkeley. When I was 22, I started my first full-time job at Box and then spent three years working on Blitz with the best team I could ask for. And of course, roughly 3.5 years ago I met Hallen and started a new job at Discord.
This year, in particular, was full of significant milestones that marked the beginning of my new chapter.
We are engaged!
This May, I proposed to Hallen to design the rest of our lives together. I‘ve been thinking for a long time that when I meet someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with, I wanted to propose in a way that’s unique to myself. And of course, for me it was to make a website for the proposal.
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to share all of the life’s greatest moments, as well as any obstacles together. (like planning for the wedding!) Before I met Hallen, I was anxious about uncertainties in life, but now I’m excited to open our new chapter as I know we can experience and face anything together. We can’t wait for our wedding day in May! (Obviously I also made a wedding website)
We moved to Seattle!
SF Bay Area might be the longest I’ve stayed at a single location ever in my life — I’ve been living there for 10 years. As Hallen started her internal medicine residency in Seattle, we both moved together to Seattle this June. I feel fortunate that remote work has become the norm in tech and made it easier for me to move to a new city. This is also probably the perfect time to try out a new city after 10 years in SF Bay Area, and I’d be moving with the best people I could ask for — Hallen (and Jon!)
It’s been six months since we moved, and we’ve been enjoying the change of vibe and scenery here in Seattle. It definitely feels slower-paced, cleaner, and more compact (~15 min to Bellevue vs. ~50 min to San Jose). We also happened to experience both the historic heat wave hitting 110°F and the historic cold and snow at 25°F. We are truly getting the full four seasons experience that we couldn’t get in California. We are stoked to explore more of this new city!
Here’s to 2022
One of my biggest weaknesses that I’ve come to realize this year is that I care way too much about public perception. It impacts my social life — interacting with both strangers and friends, and work life —like impostor syndrome. This might have cultural roots: Koreans in general care a lot about public perception and how others think about them. Although this can be a good thing as people might be extra courteous and respectful, I feel it’s preventing me from being vocal about my perspectives and exactly what I want for myself. In 2022, my top new year resolution is to be more vocal about my opinions and care a bit less about how others think about me.
I will also try to get back to writing this year, sharing my point of views on design, product, and technology. By going back to sharing my opinions via my blog and Twitter, I hope to organize my own ideas, exchange perspectives, and help others grow. Some ideas I have in mind in the back burner are: deciding when to use intuition vs. research, balancing between conforming to the design system and breaking from it, blue sky design process, just to name a few.
There are quite a bit of things I’m looking forward to next year:
- Our wedding in May: This is probably one of the biggest moments in our new chapter, and our lives. There are so many items left to plan, like choosing all the vendors, the timeline, and even design & decor (which I’ll be designing myself quite a bit!) but we can’t wait to celebrate with our friends and families in May!
- Next project at Discord: The past few months has been one of the most exciting times for me at Discord, and in my career in general. I can’t share too much yet, but I’m really excited and feel personally passionate about our next project — more to be shared soon.
- Portfolio Redesign: I haven’t published the new portfolio website this year, as I’ve been heads down making website for the proposal and our wedding. Still, I have been designing and building this new website from time to time, with all new tech stack (the current one has been a pain to say the least) and some fun additions. Can’t wait to launch this summer!
If 2021 marked a beginning of my new chapter, 2022 would mark some of the biggest milestones of this new chapter, from our wedding to next projects in my career. Here’s to 2022 —happy new year and hopefully this year we’ll really see the end of the tunnel in this pandemic.
