(Not that my industry and academic career isn’t fun, too.)
In addition to engineering, I’ve always loved writing and journaling. Over the pandemic, I wrote and published The Glitch (New Degree Press), which is available in paperback and e-book.
In September 2023, I participated in Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s “Foundations of Mindfulness,” a 5-day silent meditation retreat. Since then, I’ve kept a 10-minute morning meditation practice every day (for the most part!).
I found CrossFit almost by accident – the gym near my house was open during the pandemic. Turns out, it’s exactly the intense physical outlet that I need. I learned all my powerlifting and olympic lifting techniques there and have since dropped in at other gyms while traveling/living around the country (San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Dallas, TX; New York City, NY) and around the world (Lisbon, Portgual; Porto, Portugal; Barcelona, Spain; Madrid, Spain; Mexico City, Mexico; Seoul, South Korea).
My favorite CrossFit workout happens to be called “Grace” (30 clean + jerks for time)!
My favorite gyms:
I ran track & field and cross country when I was in grade school, and it’s been part of me ever since. I ran my own trail half-marathon over the pandemic. Follow me on Strava.
Over the 2020 pandemic, I taught unofficial sex education workshops to high schoolers via Zoom through Learning Unlimited’s “Splash” and ran Instagram lives with About Face supporting media literacy for girls! You can peruse my big ol’ list of resources here or just go to the amazing Scarleteen as your one-stop-shop.
Aprendí mi español en una escuela primaria bilingüe (fue una experiencia muy especial!). Desde entonces, he tomado más clases de español, trabajado como voluntaria de traducción, leído novelas y visto películas y programas de TV en español, disfrutado de música de México y España, viajado a Madrid, Barcelona y CDMX – y por supuesto, escuchado a escondidas las conversaciones de la gente en público que no me sospechan porque no parezco que hablo el español con fluidez.
Si usas mi móvil o mi computadora, verás que elegí el español como el lenguaje del sistema.
Me encantan:
Since 곽 (Kwak) is a very uncommon Korean last name, a lot of people don’t realize I’m Korean… surprise! Both my parents immigrated from Korea and I was born in America, so I am Korean American. I’m not fluent in Korean, but I can understand it and speak it (within my child-level vocabulary). I can read and write 한글.
As a Korean woman, I particularly love Koreangry comics.