I've finally settled down, after having been on the move for the past year and a half.

After a cohosting a workshop in Guatemala and staying in the country for two weeks to explore its wonderful coffeelands, I finished things off in Atlanta upon my graduation, then headed over to Portugal for five weeks to study the Portuguese language.

Next, I was off on a work trip to Tanzania, then made a return to England to see my brother Ryan graduate, visited my friend Josep in Paris for a weekend, went to Iceland on a family trip, and made a brief stop in Korea until taking off again to Panama where I worked and lived for six months.

Due to my prolonged absence from the US, I was starting to get worried about my permanent residence being taken away at immigration so, at the height of the pandemic, I am back in the States.

In between the nomadic journey and finally returning to the US for good, I was graced by the opportunity to spend six months in my hometown Daejeon.

Those six months were, for the most part, spent at home, whereby I devoted myself towards retrospecting my journey, and cultivating my growing understanding of this new field I have begun to take quite seriously.

With all the stops I made in the past year and half, I am finding myself returning to the city I have gotten to love: Asheville, North Carolina.

This is the place that was my homebase during the summer of 2018, where I took up a seasonal job in forestry.

And my decision to live here for the next six months is my deliberate attempt to reconnect with a place that is so dear to my identity.

The Southern Appalachians are where I had finally become comfortable with my self-identity two years ago, having lived as a foreigner of other's cultures for more than a decade.

It's really come full circle.

Here, I will be continuing to challenge my understanding of software development, work on a backlogged list of projects, and build up my knowledge in data structures and algorithms so that I can be ready for a job as a software enginner towards the end of my time here.

What am I most excited about?

The multigenerational commune that will be my home for the near future, and the colours of leaves exploding into autumn. 🍂