When people ask me where I am from, I struggle a bit, I was born in Hongkong, went to a boarding school in the UK and now live in the USA. Apart from 4 years back in London working, 2 years in Cincinatti, my home has been in Columbus, Ohio since 1999. I don’t see it as a place I’ll stay but it is a beautiful city.

I am an Technical Executive who travels all over the USA in both Technical (Computer) delivery and Sales. I have been working with limited breaks for about 16 years straight. I have lived in cities for months with out my family, had vacations interrupted and let my health suffer sometimes. Those are choices I’ve made which have given me a lot of opportunities that I seized.

In 1998, I came to America 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, Vice President. I have run projects over multiple countries, handled multi million dollar projects, large teams and built data centers and service offerings for major corporations. I’ve spend the last 15 years traveling for work – over 100 flights a year often. As I’ve also worked throughout most my vacations, I have often failed abysmally at letting go of my electronic leashes.

That is on me – not the companies I work for however between the travel, and my work stress something needed to change. I also wanted to look at where I was heading and 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 off. So for my own mental health and my Doctor advising (“Strongly”) to take some time off, I decided to take a break. I’ve arranged 2 months of time away, traveling and volunteering in Ecuador and in Thailand. My boss and company were kind enough to allow me to use my accrued PTO from foreign deployments to take the time off.

I am hoping these situations and places will push me to break away from work, to grow and to give back in ways different than my daily life. I am leaving a lot of my usual technology behind. I am also only taking a carry on backpack and will be trying to not extend my western privilege.

I am volunteering for 4 weeks of the time, 2 weeks in Ecuador aligned with a spanish course, and 2 weeks in Thailand, one week of immersion and one week of building a school. I will be taking “rest” as part of my Thailand trip – like 9 days of fun traveling around Thailand. I am ending up with 2 weeks back in Columbus, Ohio before returning to work.

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.