Should you hide your creative hobbies from friends and family? It’s complicated. Hobbies are polarizing things. In essence, they are supposed to be the things we choose to do because we like, or even love them. They help fill the time between work, chores, and other responsibilities. Being able to…

So let’s release this belief that you should be tortured by your own brain. — It’s a common narrative that with talent or “genius,” there always comes a cost. If you can create, you must trade something for it, often it comes at the cost of your health and relationships. When we look at artists like Van Gogh, Silvia Plath, and others with mental health…

That life used to be the dream, but now I don’t think so anymore. For people who love to travel and create, nothing seems better than the digital nomad life. You move on every couple of months to a new destination and you create content or do other online work…

I’m very happy to be back to traveling, but has air travel gotten weirder or is it just me? I traveled a lot pre-pandemic, and I’ve never been a luxury traveler. Budget airlines have helped me have more money for doing things at my destination. But my return to travel…

Or, how they try to persuade me to stay and how effective their tactics are. Don’t get me wrong, I like our life in the US. We have great friends, we’ve enjoyed a lot of cool places nearby and in neighboring states, and we remarkably got on the housing ladder…

Cultivating the ultimate life skill… In 2020, I wanted nothing more than to escape. I had moved back to the US in 2017 with plans to move abroad again within a year or two. And then I was more stuck than ever, it seemed, with the pandemic cutting me off…

Why is it that we don’t think we can live our dream life until we have our dream physique? “I was considered fat in South Korea!” a slim young Korean woman relates in a TikTok. Her point was, no doubt, that beauty standards in Korea (particularly for entertainers) is very…

Save this if you’re planning on job hunting in South Korea… — Korea is a trendy location at the moment, mainly thanks to the rise of K-pop and Korean dramas in the west. I spent four years living and working in Korea before that wave crested, but it was definitely on the rise then. As is always the case when it comes…

While “healing your inner child” has become a cliche and gimmicky online shorthand, there is real merit to the idea. — Sometimes it shocks people when they casually discuss things that are common childhood experiences for most people, and I simply have no point of reference. I was the youngest child in a large, lower-middle-class family, but it wasn’t merely economics that limited my range of experiences.