Making the "Right Choice"

The start of September marks the end of my summer of respite, and as a result, the beginning of my job search in earnest. I have lots of potential roads ahead of me: moving back to the developing world and establishing myself as a technology expert there, joining a more conventional small tech company in Silicon Valley or New York, going back to one of the big hitters like Google, or something entirely different. And so, for the last few weeks, I've had the question on my mind: How will I know if the choice I make is the right one?

Looking Back on a Year at Cambridge

Saying goodbye to my father
before departing for Cambridge.

I'll never forget the trip I took from my family's home in Arizona late last September. I set off for England to start my master's degree at Trinity College in the University of Cambridge. I had just finished a whirlwind trip around the US after 14 months of travel; I was sleep deprived, whiplashed by the sudden life changes, and apprehensive to be moving to another country again. I remember the bus ride from Heathrow to Cambridge. I hadn't slept in nearly two days, and crazy thoughts were ricocheting off my skull. Was I making the right decision? Was Cambridge the right place for me? Would I even be able to stay in one place for nine months? Well here we are, nine months later, and finally, I can answer those questions with certainty.

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!

Life In Motion

Greetings from Cambridge! I haven't decided yet whether to continue writing this blog, but seeing as I no longer work for Google and no longer live in Africa, at the very least, I thought it was fitting to come up with a new name. Why "In Motion"? Over the last year, I've done a fair bit of travel, and I've discovered that it's the one state that feels more natural than any other to me. It's the sensation of a plane lifting off the ground, the road speeding beneath my wheels, the wind rushing past me at furious speeds. I live for motion, alway pushing forward, looking back only to remember past joys and learn from old mistakes.

These last few weeks in Cambridge have been incredibly, absolutely hectic. We'll see once things normal out whether I can still find interesting enough things to say to put here. Until then...

One Year Ago...

One year ago today, I landed in Africa for the first time. Looking back at my journal, I arrived at my hotel, discovered I had no hot water, went to the office, and ate some chicken with jolof rice. Pretty typical day in west Africa, really, but it was anything but typical for me. I've come a long way since then, establishing an entirely new life and lifestyle for myself.

In short, some of my greatest accomplishments this year:

• Visiting 2 new continents and discovering a newfound love for parts of the world I hadn't even thought of before.
• Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and visiting my friend Alma in Rwanda after over a year of planning.
• Hitting 20 countries in the span of 12 months, many of them for the first time, and many of them more than once.
• Expanding my culinary comfort zone by eating all sorts of unusual ethnic dishes (see Nigerian giant land snails).
• Discovering frequent flyer miles and learning how to sleep on planes.
• Becoming comfortable taking bucket showers and surviving without proper toilets or electricity.
• Finally achieving platinum status on the Starwood Preferred Guests program (I'm actually way too proud of this given the fact that it just means I've spent way too much time living out of hotel rooms).
• Making friends with some pretty extraordinary people.
• Learning that I am in fact good at the work I've wanted to do for several years.
• Coming to understand a lot about myself, what I value, and what kind of life I want to lead.

Here's to hoping that this coming year holds just as much growth, fun, and adventure as the last!

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