Foreword

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”, a question I was asked countless times as a kid. I never really knew what it meant or if there was supposed to be a perfect answer. My first 19 years of life were made up of influenced choices and calculated decisions. I was a kid that didn’t display much of an expertise in any particular area. On the contrary, I was all over the place. As a Vietnamese who started schooling in Singapore, I had the option of not participating in a second language class. Despite so, I was motivated to be able to converse in Chinese due to the immense amount of Chinese shows I was watching at the time, and and my paternal Cantonese heritage. I made great efforts to persist and continued all the way up to GCE O-Levels. I successfully acquired the language and made my first achievement of an essay publication in a local Chinese newspaper and my school model essays textbook. In those days, I thought linguistics and writing were what I was made to do.

After secondary school, I didn’t know which path I was supposed to pursue. I was not consistently first academically. Contrary to expectation, I generally received better grades in the mathematics and science classes that I neglected, in comparison to the language classes I enjoyed. Meanwhile, my co-curricular activity of freestyle dancing had shown me that I didn’t fancy being in the spotlight. I decided to apply for part-time retail positions to learn more about the working world out there. Still, I never gave up school, I was admitted to Temasek Polytechnic for Leisure and Events Management for my interest in organizing and running social events. The most highlighted moments during those days were going through unexpected customer services interviewing questions and resulted in making a fool of myself (which ended up as a trait the interviewers remembered me for), spending my days studying my favorite module of my course which was economics and my elective modules of film and theater, running back and forth between my 2 jobs at Starbucks and Awfully Chocolate from two ends of the country. Last but not least, invested tirelessly to my dancing days with the TPDE folks for GEM 11 Production.

Had I continued down that path of choice, I very well could have become an event organizer by day and a dancer by night. Yet, something in me still felt unsettled.  I couldn’t bring myself to believe that was all there was to life and never quite figured out what I was living for. After months of the same routine, I decided that I needed a change. I needed to leave to find myself, to find what I was meant to do. I departed for the United States after one year at the polytechnic, leaving behind caring friends, loving family, and one of the most spectacular years of my life.

Fast-forward 6 years of juggling, I finally made it out of school with an Associate of Science in Mathematics and Physical Science and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, made differences in places I had the opportunity to be part of. If you’re wondering how my day-to-day looks at this point, I can confidently tell you that I’m developing software by day. During my non-working hours, I play badminton, yoga, dance, pilates and snowboard when the season comes. One thing that is different compared to my years of struggling is my current state of mind. I no longer worry about the need to be an expert in one particular area, but I want to do them all.

Needless to say, I would not have gotten this far without the undying and dedicated support and inspirations from all the people I have crossed paths with. With that being said, if you have gotten to this far of reading, I sincerely am grateful that you spent a fraction of your time to be here with me. No matter where you are, I hope you are doing something you love, spreading the joy of contributing positively to society and living life to your fullest potential.