Hello, World!

Welcome to my blog!

This is the story of a yuppie who trades in his expense-account dinners for ramen and boxed mac-and-cheese.

...Of moving to the Big Apple from Boston and becoming a New Yorker on a grad-student budget.

...Of frustrations in dealing with a vast university bureaucracy.

...Of maneuvering around young romance and the challenges of sharing a New York-sized apartment with someone you love (most of the time).

...Of anxiety about a career path where you train for 6 (or 7 or 8 or 9) years to have almost no control over your job prospects or placement.

Above all, this is the story of someone who gives up the corporate career for a life spent in the pursuit of knowledge, and whether that all ends happily ever after...or not.

I had sold out; now I'm Selling Back In.

A little bit about my background: I've worked for the past 3.5 years at a global strategy and management consulting firm that is routinely ranked by Vault.com among the best in the industry. My positions at GSMCF have ranged from project analyst and junior manager to U.S. head of undergraduate recruiting to North American staffing manager. I'd like to think based on my private sector experience that I've got a pretty well-rounded view of business, both in terms of advising clients on how to run theirs but also, in my recruiting and Human Assets roles, helping to make the kind of decisions that keep a business going. I did my undergrad at Amherst College, a small liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts, graduating in 2006. (Just a heads-up: I adore my alma mater and will defend Amherst to the death despite its various shortcomings as an elite institution that remains largely insulated from some of the greatest socio-economic challenges of our country, despite the gallant efforts of our president, Tony Marx.) This fall, I'll fulfill a lifelong dream by starting a doctoral program in history at Columbia University in New York, where I hope to study modern U.S. social and cultural history (much more on that later).

As any good historian would probably say, without knowing my background you would have a hard time teasing out my biases, so let me lay it all out there for you:

• First-generation Chinese American: I was born in Hong Kong and came to the United States with my mother and brother in 1993 (when I was 9). I've often pondered what being Chinese American means to me, and I think there are two main manifestations of my culture in my daily life: 1) a tendency to defer to seniority or authority (or both), which has been a challenge in consulting and will also be, I presume, in grad school; and 2) a probably unhealthy amount of concern for and attachment to my mother. I've somehow managed to escape developing any real discernible fresh-off-the-boat accent -- not that there's anything wrong with accents -- but instead sound like something of a cross between an Indianan and a Californian in person.
• Gay: I'm a dude who likes other dudes. This is a non-issue for me at this point, although it seems to bug people in the Midwest for some reason.
• Post-Mormon: My family converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( as the Church likes to be called) in 1995. I was the one who spearheaded my family's conversion (oh, the foibles of youth), and, coincidentally, was also then the first one to get out when I got to college for reasons that were largely personal and intellectual in nature. For those of you who are not familiar with this particular faith, Mormonism is not merely a membership organization or even just a religion; it's a deeply ingrained culture andlifestyle. Once you drink the Kool-Aid, there can be life after Mormonism, but never really life without it. That's why, while many people who've left the Church choose to use the phrase "ex-Mormon" to describe their affiliation with it, I believe that "post-Mormon" is more apt.
• Tall: I'm abnormally tall for an Asian. Not sure how that affects my thinking or perspective, except that maybe I take a *higher level* view of things. Yes -- you can expect many more bad puns.
• Carnivore: I'm a foodie who believes that food -- especially beef, fish, or shellfish -- is best eaten raw. This is only relevant insofar as restaurant / food reviews may pop up every now and the.
• Democrat: My college friends still like to make fun of the fact that, when I first arrived at Amherst and as late as my sophomore year, I was registered as a Republican. I switched in the summer after my sophomore year after I took my head out of my ass. I think taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society. I think expenditures for education and healthcare should outweigh expenditures for "homeland security" and prisons. I support the role of the courts to protect minority rights against majority-rule tyranny. I'm pro-marriage equality and pro-choice, but if I had a baby I probably wouldn't get an abortion (good thing I don't have to worry about that; see "gay"). At the very core of my political philosophy is the notion that government exists to support the least among us.

True to my consulting background, here are the key questions I hope to explore with this blog:

• What will the transition from consulting to academic grad school be like?
• What are my assumptions about grad school, and to what extent will grad school live up to my expectations of being a potentially idyllic, intellectually exciting, and fulfilling life?
• How can one not only survive but even experience one of the most expensive cities in the world as a grad student? (I know lots of other people do, but how do I?)
• Will my passion for history and academia hold up, or will I burn out and/or succumb to the siren call of the private sector?

I'll post stories. I'll post videos. I'll post news articles (including some that may require a subscriber password that I may or may not possess illegally, so apologies for that in advance). And I hope you'll comment so that I know I'm not alone in thinking about all of these questions and issues.

Wish me luck!