4 years ago, I landed in United States and my great journey began.

Challenges came to me like non-stop, and I needed to deal with them all. The first big challenge was English. In China, we don’t really have a great environment to learn or practice oral English, because everyone speaks Chinese. Our books, TV programs are mostly in Chinese. The 10-more-year English I learned so far was almost all from textbooks, not something that I can use well in real life. My first half year here was quite exciting – whenever I tried to speak English, I needed to follow these steps: First, think in Chinese; second, translate Chinese into English in my mind; and finally speak out in English, sometimes with grammar errors or wrong words. It was hard, but now when I look back, it was so much fun.

These past 4 years has been fulfilling and satisfying. I learned how to live independently in this country, fell in love with karate and cooking (I’m a great Chinese cook!!), and most importantly, found my passion in user experience design and enjoyed learning from experts and friends in this exciting field. Then, Toastmasters pushed me out of my English speaking comfort zone, and taught me to fearlessly face my language screw-ups.

My great adventures have just begun.There will be many more exciting unknowns along the paths of my career and life. More adventures to enjoy, more challenges to overcome. Some of them may look terrifying at the beginning, but I will welcome them and give them a hug, because they are really what make my life incredibly interesting.

Life is awesome :)