In September 2021, I walked 26 miles to fundraise for Blue Dragon’s Children Foundation. I am grateful for everyone’s donation and want to briefly share why your support matters. I have known about Blue Dragon for a long time and volunteered briefly in 2015. The Hanoi-based organization helps street kids…

I move to find meanings and beauty in a random gathering of experiences. — Sometime ago, I said goodbye to school and moved out of a place that had long exhausted my curiosity and kind thoughts. After seven years of permanence, I was emotionally drained, grateful for a pause in cutting my teeth, and climbing out of a crack in a friendship whose sound…

Our friendship started by accident when the world was still green. Desk mate by fate and scribbling, canteen ice creams and giggling, Hanoi bus stops, street food, and lunch sleepovers, silliness at scale from the ancient high school days: somehow this uplifting and continuous journey of a friendship has spanned…

Reflections on leadership and youth empowerment — On my last day at Young Governors, I received an email from one of the high school leaders that I worked with. Attached was a collage of photos — about me. A film camera, my favorite animated character, and Vietnam. My three months ended in a kind note, as surreal…

To be continued, always… — Several weeks before I turned 23, someone knocked on my door and said, “I cooked something. For your birthday.” I had been at a different place in understanding myself before I met her, functioning on what seems like a duo of sporadic energy and perpetual anxiety. Our values met, but…

On kindness, reflection, and wild wishes — These past months, I have been listening to “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye. The poem brings me back to many events that changed the way I perceived the world. It was transformational in retrospect and kindness becomes the only story that I want to listen to and bounce back with…