Who I Am Matters

I’m Truly Unbearable

I was born and raised in Orange County, California, in a town called Fountain Valley with a decently sized Asian-American population. Living close to the largest Vietnamese community in the world outside of Vietnam itself, Little Saigon, I was influenced by an intermingling of Vietnamese and American cultures. 

My father immigrated on a boat with his parents after being suspected of being capitalist sympathizers during the Vietnam War, and through the hardships he and his family faced learning to live in a completely new environment, developed an unrelenting work ethic and a pervasive sense of responsibility. On the other hand, my mother grew up in a single-parent household in Long Beach, valuing socialization, living in the moment, and caring for others. 

I’m very much a product of both of these experiences – the drive of my father and the extrovertedness of my mother have combined to create someone truly unbearable. 

This Life Is My Own

Like my mother, I enjoy getting to know people and cherish new experiences, but the work ethic I learned from my father keeps me on track to achieving my goals. I say “my” goals intentionally; from my mid-teenage years, I’ve distanced myself from the life paths of my parents and aspired for something to call my own.

Returning from an internship where the work I contributed to is hardly explicable to anyone outside the finance industry, I think I’ve done a good job so far. For the foreseeable future, moving to New York after graduation to continue working with my employer from the summer is the plan.

What I Want To Become

One of the reasons I’m excited to return to the east coast is the people I met while I was there. A particularly prominent mentor and role model for me over the past year has been a man named Bobby. Bobby’s high up in the organizational hierarchy at the company I worked at, but no matter how busy he gets, he always finds time in his schedule to catch up with me and offer his advice on decisions I’m facing.

He was so enthusiastic about this that sometimes, he would schedule time and offer insight on things I hadn’t even asked about. His generosity with the little time he had and his genuine passion for lifting up the next generation of employees at the firm are two things I want to emulate as I grow older and busier. 

My Nature

I feel a special connection to tigers - they seem like real all-around players in nature and are orange, which is my favorite color.

On a completely unrelated note, as a child my parents used to bring my sister and I on road trips to explore national parks in the U.S. One particularly memorable experience was driving through the hollowed out trunk of a tree in California’s Redwood Forest. Not sure what was so exciting about that, other than the takeaway that there are some really massive trees there. 

Sun: Taurus

Moon: Virgo

Rising: Leo