Living without Regret

There was an excellent article published in The New York Times the other day that resonated with me deeply. It doesn't take long to understand why – the article begins with the following passage:

At 17, I wrote a speech titled, “When You Come to the End of Your Days, Will You Be Able to Write Your Own Epitaph?” It reflected the approach to life I adopted after my mother’s untimely death from cancer at age 49. I chose to live each day as if it could be my last — but with a watchful eye on the future in case it wasn’t. 

My goal was, and still is, to die without regrets.

Reflecting on Three Years of Travel

Oxford, just after I arrived in 2009.

Three years ago today, I landed in England for the first time with my suitcases and a stomach full of fear and apprehension. I had never traveled on my own before, never been to Europe, never lived abroad, nothing. I remember getting off the plane and wandering around Heathrow as anxiety welled up within me. My phone wasn't working despite the preparations I'd made beforehand. I didn't know how to get to the tube stop where I'd be meeting my cousin who had been living in London. What was the difference between the rail and the underground anyway? I called my father from a pay phone in a panic. He didn't pick up. Neither did my aunt. I was stuck. I was alone. But though I didn't realize it at the time, this feeling of discomfort, of anxiety, would soon become an addiction.

How I Spent My Gap Year

Greetings, friends, family, and other readers. I'm going to be totally cliché and begin this post with an apology for not updating in months. I recently finished my first term at Cambridge, and after moving around so much last year, it was a  relief to be able to stay in one place for more than a couple weeks. The classes I took were generally interesting and challenging, the people I met absolutely extraordinary, and the Oxbridge culture just as decadent as I remembered. But that's not what I really wanted to write about today. A few weeks back, I visited some former colleagues at the Google office in London, and heard really encouraging news about the project I used to work on. Since it was secret and un-launched for my entire time at Google, I never really got to talk about what I was up to, but now I can!