Writing is my glue. It connects my worlds: journaling to blogging, personal to professional, understanding to persuading. Prior to leveraging writing, my thoughts often floated around until they were either lost, or worse, hidden from sight, fueling unconscious biases. Writing has become my chief form of self-understanding. For these reasons, it was obvious to me that my Husky 100 application needed to include a written piece. However, it was just as important to demonstrate how practical writing has been for me while at the University of Washington (UW). By nesting this article into my e-portfolio, I hope it’s clear how often I’ve leveraged writing to share my story and opinions with my immediate network and beyond. All of my written work is created with both feet firmly planted on the ground in an effort to be relatable to others, based in fact, from the heart, and most notably: impactful. Using the lens of writing, it’s fairly easy to connect the dots between my most fundamental experiences at UW: three study abroad trips, sharing my career experiences online, and getting published by a major newspaper. Writing has been the glue for which all three of these defining moments have connected. Building upon the foundation laid by UW, writing has pushed me toward a future focused on impact. 

A discovery mindset is the primary motivating factor for why I’ve pursued more than one study abroad. As an incoming freshman, I went to Rome, where I obsessed over food culture, religious history, and monuments of the ancient Roman empire. As an incoming senior, I traveled to Australia, traversing the east coast of the country, speaking to public, social, and private sector executives while simultaneously experiencing the beauty of Australian sports, exotic wildlife, and natural wonders of the world. Both of these adventures were complemented with extensive writing. In Rome, the trip doubled as a travel writing course centered around self-discovery and developing a writing style. In Australia, my ten page culminating essay demanded persuasive and thought organization skills as I constructed an argument about why Australia and the United States handled Covid-19 so differently. 

Barcelona was my third study abroad trip. While Rome and Australia came packaged with writing prompts and personal journaling, Barcelona was where I first started publishing online. It began as a means of processing the things I’d witnessed and sharing those observations with family members. When my family confirmed that others had expressed interest in my travel blogs, I moved the work onto SubStack – an email newsletter platform – where I was able to share with a larger audience, receiving roughly one hundred views per article. Travel blogging revealed to me that others can benefit from my own discovery mindset; a revelation for which I'm forever grateful. After sharing my excursions and curiosities with others, I received feedback that I had created a source of entertainment and even inspiration for others. This sparked the realization that my writing could be impactful.

I had hoped that study abroad programs had not seen the last of me. Earlier this school year, I was accepted into my fourth study abroad located in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Unfortunately, this program was recently canceled due to civil unrest in Peru. While a trip to Peru will have to wait, I’ve used my hunger for diverse experiences as fuel to plan future travel including a post-graduation trip composed of visits to Istanbul and Cairo, with several weeks of hiking across Scotland and Iceland. My obsession with variety in international adventures speaks to my recognition that a commitment to learning about and building inclusive, equitable, and strong communities is essential.

In the fall, I published my first career-oriented article on Medium – an online blogging website – and it was an incredible challenge. When deciding whether or not my thoughts were worth publishing, I reflected on my experiences travel blogging where I realized that sharing with others had the potential to create a real impact in their lives. This motivation was more than enough for me to publish my first couple articles online. I demonstrated my capacity for leadership by being vulnerable and writing from the heart, knowing that not everyone would agree with me. My hope was that after seeing my writing, my generation would be more likely to release their own unique identity and thoughts into the world as well. 

By overcoming my fear of releasing articles to the public, I was rewarded many times over. Peers congratulated me on releasing the articles and some shared with me that they too had been working on their own respective written works. I felt I had opened up creative avenues for my UW contemporaries. The “cherry on top” came when the Seattle Times informed me that they would publish my opinion article – focused on Generation Z’s reaction to Big Tech layoffs. Writing this career-oriented content allowed me to step into a leadership role for students at UW and even more significantly, my generation.

I’m now ready for what’s next. My UW experience has been defined by my three study abroad trips as well as my professional writing. Oftentimes, it’s difficult to connect the dots looking forward, but in hindsight, it’s obvious that writing has been the glue for connecting my UW experiences. What started as a hobby and a way for me to explain and understand my life, led to a medium that empowered me to construct a discovery mindset, pursue diverse experiences, and become capable of leading my peers into passionate pursuits of their own. Writing about my UW experiences has become my method of impact, and that’s why it’s become such an important factor for what’s to come. Currently, I’m interning for a startup based out of San Francisco called Standard Metrics. Upon graduation in the spring, my plan is to convert to a full-time role with the company and make the most of their remote-first work policy, which offers me the chance to travel and write all about it as I work from different locations around the world. While I continue my writing focused on career-building and traveling adventures, I hope to expand to more topics as I grow from new experiences and a changing world. As I look to what’s next, a few things will surely remain the same: fondness of my UW experience, impact as my north star, and an unrelenting urge to write.