Preface

October 17 2016

It is 2016. I will write down the story of my life. From the roots of my grandparents in revolutionary China, to the emigration of my parents to Canada, to the struggle over wants rather than needs in my own life. The first section, childhood, covers my initial ten years in the embrace of a large extended family in China. My grandparents grew up in the chaotic birth of a nation to provide physical and moral shelter for their children. My parents grew up in the post-revolutionary countryside, studying their way out and up to become university scholars and pursuing higher education all the way across the Pacific. I was born into this academic family and would be a campus brat from birth in China to adulthood in Canada. The second section, youth-hood, covers the next fifteen years of my self-defining adventures in the free world. Within five years of landing in Vancouver, Canada, I would complete my primary education through an accelerated program and attend university at age fifteen. For the next five years, I would make what had been my parent's university campus completely my own, graduating a literal poster-child: with top marks, horizon-expanding internships in Japan and America, and academic research that opened the door to graduate studies at MIT. For the next two years, I would have my proverbial undergraduate experience as an under-aged graduate student: living in dorms, immersing in school life, and graduating with a prize for the arts. The subsequent job search would bring me across the country to an empowered position with Microsoft. I would quit Microsoft after only 18 months to return to Vancouver to pursue a career in acting. I would quit acting after only twelve months to dedicate myself to a career in finance. The third section, adulthood, covers the next ten years as I attempt to gain lucrative employment. I was determined to stay with my parents and to build a career in finance. I would prepare with an iron will and a laser focus to break into an investment banking job after only nine months. I would enjoy quiet employment for three years before rebelling and quitting to work for a wealthy Chinese investor. This job would carry me forward for the next six years to the present. I would engage in a series of power struggles before earning an imperial purview of my domain and a very flexible schedule. My familial foundation and stable employment have led to my present state of semi-retirement with room to breathe and a chance to reflect on my total experience.