Theme of this Month:
🇹🇼 A Day in Taipei

I spent the past month and a half in Taipei and my days there still feel like a reverie. With COVID being very much under control in my native Taiwan (unlike in the U.S.), all the treasures that the city could offer were at my fingertips and more; I made sure not to take any of it for granted. I roamed the old haunts and neighborhoods of my formative years while listening to albums that had passed me by. I bellowed old Taiwanese love songs in karaoke lounges. I shared a round-table meal while catching up with friends that I haven’t seen since middle school. I wore my new tailored suit for the first time all year to attend the wedding of my childhood friend where the best man stole the show with an oscar-worthy performance that was his speech. I hiked through walls of thorny pandanus plants to arrive at the Dragon Cave where I climbed magnificent terraces of rocks that were at least thirty meters high. I savored the red snapper sashimi that a warm and attentive chef recommended to us, all while chatting with him about philosophy around food and happiness. I attended my first concert of the year where I teared up as the singer crooned the words “I don’t know where I’m going but that’s okay.” I’ve spent countless warm nights with my family sharing spicy hot pot filled to the brim with my favorites, followed by rounds of mahjong and an inevitable dessert break.

I’m back in New York now. Even though I won’t be able to enjoy the same luxuries as I had and am thrown back into an environment where the waves are still turbulent and uncertainty has become a part of the horizon, I can’t help but smile–out of my yearning for life and what’s yet to come. I don’t know where I’m going, but that’s completely okay.