Repeating Departures
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Let me begin with an anecdote about my late maternal grandmother. She was 22 years old when the North Korean army began its southward invasion, and her family had to evacuate. Amidst the chaos, she and her younger sister tied their baby sister to a tree so that the rest of them could flee safely. (Gasp!) Thankfully, their baby sister cried so much that they had no choice but to bring her along. Half a century later, she told us the story not so much as a sad memoir, but as a lesson—tinged with pride—that sometimes hard decisions must be made in circumstances that demand them.
Explaining myself to others has always been difficult. I've moved often—across places, continents, and contexts—and I rarely have the energy to translate every detail. I prefer to start fresh, deeply absorbed in the moment, and I rarely look back. I tend not to regret much, nor do I feel the need to connect the dots in a way that makes sense to someone else. My attention belongs to whatever task, dream, or goal consumes me in the moment.
That's why making a website to "reflect" myself feels decidedly hard. Still, I've tried to let that trajectory show through here, whether or not it makes sense to anyone else.
I hope no one takes this little piece as an invitation to psychoanalyze me (lol). Instead, I offer it as a fragment of background for anyone curious about my ongoing and interrupted bodies of work across different fields—work I plan to keep updating in this small digital nook.
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