Sedentary is hardly a word I would pick to describe myself.  Since I was little, I’ve traveled on planes across the US and internationally, to the point where an airport is, at a minimum, a monthly occurrence in my life now and I don’t bat an eye.

I studied abroad in Spain during my junior year at UCLA, allowing me to immerse myself in a language and culture that to this day pulls on my heartstrings.  With friends, weekends became expeditions to new cities and countries; overnight bus rides and early morning sprints to catch trains took us across borders and pushed us one layer deeper into understanding more of the world around us.

When I returned, my mother more or less banned me from any more trips out of fear I wouldn’t come back and graduate university.  I did graduate with what society may view as a useless degree, European Studies with a minor in Spanish Language & Culture, but my switch from Biology to a field I was truly passionate about completely shifted my outlook in college.  Classes suddenly became exciting and I found myself reading ahead simply because I wanted to learn more about the subject: Scandinavian Crime Literature, 17th-19th Century Spanish Literature, World Wars, Henrik Ibsen’s body of works, Shakespeare. It may be a good time to also mention I’m a theatrical person to my core, so it’s no wonder most of my classes held a hint of the dramatic within their syllabi.  It made my heart sing.

Since graduating, I’ve traveled on a frequent basis and moved quite a bit as well.  In 2012, I moved to Washington DC on a whim after accepting a job at the House of Representatives while waiting to hear back from the Foreign Service.  A few short months later, I was recruited by my current company and began a whirlwind adventure I never imagined possible.  In my almost four years at my company, I’ve been stationed in Washington DC, managing everything south of New York and north of Florida, back in Northern California handling the Bay Area, and then two stints abroad in Europe: Holland and Norway.  In May 2014 I was offered the first chance to move to Hong Kong, but I couldn’t bring myself to be inspired to make such a change at the time. The following year was filled with lots of domestic travel and a few major international trips, but nothing that truly quenched my push for a challenge.

Fast forward to August 2015, and I had received an offer to move to Hong Kong, now lovingly named Hawn Kong to match my last name, and I knew that two chances to move to such a vivid place could not be ignored.  So here I am, seated at the table in my temporary housing, five days after landing in Asia with three suitcases and my laptop, finally laying the foundation for what I’ve promised to do for years.

Here’s to being open, honest, and not holding anything back, including myself.  To new adventures making up an epic journey through life, I promise to put myself out there and truly take advantage of what’s ahead for me in Asia.  Two years will go by far more quickly than I am planning, and I can’t risk missing a single moment.

In case you’re interested, here’s a running list of the countries I’ve visited so far in life:

• United States (citizen)*
• Canada
• Mexico
• China
• Peru
• Ecuador
• Jamaica
• Bahamas (does a cruise count?)
• England
• Ireland
• Portugal
• Spain*
• Rock of Gibraltar (technically not Spain, I’m counting it!)
• Morocco
• France
• Belgium
• The Netherlands*
• Germany
• Turkey
• Norway*
• Vietnam
• Japan
• Hong Kong*
• Australia
• New Zealand

*denotes living in the country