Thirty-seven

I’m just a month away from turning thirty-seven and I’m not terribly scared, but I’m sort of not in the ideal state, I would say. Yet, I don’t think getting married and having children would have guaranteed that I would live a happy life. I think about what I truly value in my life and what has made me really happy, and I think, to some extent, it is through creating art and doing something that adds beauty to the world. I don’t really know where that desire comes from. I just sort of have to do it. 

The LATA has been a great opportunity for me to meet people who are my age and of similar professional stature. I meet lawyers, doctors, engineers, financiers, you get the idea, through a program that unites individuals based purely on their common interest in tennis. It’s a great community to be a part of, as I’ve learned through this past tournament that I ended up winning, which is doubly exciting. 

Yet, nearing the end of my decade, I reach another, perhaps final, crossroads: whether to continue on the architectural path or not. It’s something that I’ve thought about ad nauseam for the past decade or so, and I don’t know whether it is all just a delusion or if there’s something truly meaningful at the end of the rainbow. Only time will tell. One thing is for certain: it will, one way or another, be an investment in my future as I begin the aging process into adulthood. 

All in all, I just want to say that I’m thankful for the community that I’ve forged so quickly in Los Angeles. I’ve spent the past five or so years feeling really lost in Davis, sort of unable to fully be myself in the very conservative, small-city environment I found myself in. I didn’t really know what to do on that front, but to sort of quickly improvise an end to my PhD. All in all, I’m just grateful for everything and looking forward to what’s to come.