When people ask me where I am from, I struggle with a simple answer, I was born in Hongkong, went to boarding school in the UK and now live in the USA. I’m not sure anywhere really feels “home”. Apart from 4 years back in London working, 2 years in Cincinatti, my residence has been in Columbus, Ohio. I don’t see it as a place I’ll stay forever but it is a beautiful city with a good cost of living.

I am at this point a Technical Executive who travels all over the USA for both consultancy, sales and technical delivery. I have been working flat out with little vacation taken for 22 years straight. When I have taken them, I have let my vacations get interrupted and done a pretty poor job of managing my time off as time off. I’ve worked throughout most of them, and failed abysmally at letting go of my electronic leashes. Those are choices I’ve made. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t had adventures or traveled. My work has come with some incredible opportunities. When I came to America it was with with 2 bags and about $800, from that I’ve worked my way from Helpdesk to Engineer, to Storage Architect, Master Consultant, Managing Consultant, Director to Vice President.

I have been lucky enough to run projects over multiple countries, handled multi million dollar projects, built data centers for major corporations. Many of those projects feel like different careers. I’ve spend 15 years now traveling for work – often over a 100 flights a year. I’d also lived away on assignment from my home life on several occasions. This is on me – not the companies I work for however between the travel, and my work stress something needed to change.

After the sale of the company I worked for 2 years ago I wanted to take some time to look at where I was heading and plan to take some time to do some things I’ve always wanted to and never managed to do when I was younger. Even just to ask myself – are these things I’d really enjoy and want to do more of? So for my own mental health and my Doctor advising (“Strongly”) to take some time off, I decided to take a break. My boss and company were gracious enough for me to use a good part of my accrued time off from when I lived overseas to get away. So I’ve arranged 2 months of time away, traveling and volunteering in Ecuador and in Thailand.

These situations and places I hope will push me to break away from work, to grow and to give back in material ways different than I currently do. I am leaving a lot of my usual technology behind which links me to work and home. I am also only taking a carry on backpack and will be trying to not extend my western privilege. Don’t worry: I will be taking “rest” as part of this – like 9 days of fun traveling around Thailand. I expect this to be physically, mentally and spiritually challenging for me. However I hope to come back with a renewed appreciation for life and challenge. I’ll admit to fear and trepidation but sometimes that’s what a full life needs.

I chose to write this blog to give friends and family a way to see what I’m up to and to share my experiences. I will be honest in this blog and not sugarcoat what I see, I will share what I’m struggling with. It should be an adventure.