Starting Over/Identity

What will this Substack be about? Who am I?

Welcome to my Substack!

This will be a revival of my former blog. Actually, hopefully, this will be better. All my embarrassing blog posts have been imported to this so you can search through all the thoughtful and thoughtless posts from a twenty-something navigating through life. Please don’t judge me!

When attempting to update the “About” page for this, I realized I don’t have a core identity to communicate to others.

Of course, I could go the traditional route and introduce myself and what I do as a professional. I’m an experienced product manager who’s worked on military programs (Raytheon/Electric Boat), healthcare products (CVS Health), and two-sided marketplaces (Taskrabbit). I love working across interdisciplinary teams, particularly engineering and design, and building products that users love (or sometimes don’t even notice they’re using).

But an introduction about my career never seemed to be satisfying enough for me.

Over the past several years, I’ve come to love photography. I still have a difficult time calling myself a photographer. Photography has opened my world and has expanded my definition of being a human.

But Product Manager and Photographer still didn’t seem like it fulfilled my identity. There is so much more to me than two standard titles.

My challenges in life cannot be described in those two standard titles nor any amount of roles/titles.

I’m the son of two amazing Chinese immigrants. I’m a brother to two siblings. I’m a native Rhode Islander, who became a UConn Husky, who met my best friends in my years in Fort Wayne, IN.

I fell in love with my home state as an adult and met my beautiful wife during her residency year as an intern. I’m a husband to a silly B.S., M.D., Double Board Certified Pediatrician/Internist (soon to be M.S. and Quadruple boarded nephrologist (Translation: Kidney Doctor)) who will hate reading this because she has imposter syndrome. I’m incredibly proud of who she has become and continues to grow into a more wonderful woman.

Now, I’m across the country in California, occasionally learning about kidneys. I’m trying to do my best to be my genuine self and be my best self.

I will continue to grow like all humans do and all my identities will evolve as well.

With all that said, this won’t be a blog about being a product manager, a photographer, a child of immigrants, or a med spouse. This will also not be a Substack about nothing (how I described my last stint in blogging). This will be what I’m thinking through all my identities.