Background

I was born and raised in Vietnam. My mother and I emigrated to Hawaii in 2003. My mother dreamed of a better future for me and I never quite grasped the sacrifice that she had to make until I was a young adult. The unconditional love and dream that my mother gave to me is the motivation that fuel me to be the best person that I can be.

When I first came to America, I had never seen a world's map, ate a hamburger, and I didn't even know any conversational English. But, Hawaii was the most beautiful place I had ever seen and there were cartoons that I never had seen before. I remembered the time that I had finally graduated from the English as Second Language class for the new students in elementary and I was so proud of myself to get enrolled in the regular courses as the native speakers. From my experience with learning English, I knew that if I keep an open mind and keep my curiosity then I can learn anything. I believe that we should learn as much as we can in our short life around the sun.

Education and Professional Career

I graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Science (C.S) with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 2017 (I know it's physics but the year gets longer and longer every time I write that sentence 😅). I had a blast in Hilo and learned a lot from C.S faculty in the four years that I lived there. Particularly, one my most favorite project, was my self-directed study in Robotics and image processing with my Professor, Ted Shaneyfelt.

After college, I graduated and moved back to Honolulu, Hawaii to work as a Full-Stack developer with EPIC 'Ohana. My experience at EPIC allowed me to explore the web development framework Django with Python, CSS, HTML5, and Php. I created web applications to proximate locations based on users' input, training development tracker, and users course tracker/ reporting tools.

From web development, I moved on from EPIC 'Ohana to the Limtiago Consulting Group as their Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programmer. I worked with the Treatment and Disposal department of the City and County of Honolulu to assist them with their Barrington systems (DOS-based!), Rockwell, and finally overhaul their Paalaa Kai treatment plant with Mitsubishi PLCs and HMI system.

After almost two years with the wastewater treatment plant, I moved onto freshwater to be a network engineer with the Honolulu Board of Water Supply! Since learning about the networking world in 2019, I am continuously humbled and intrigued by all I have learned between the seven layers of OSI. With all my past experience, I hope to continue to be the best network engineer that I can be and solve issues. I think for me, there's no better feeling when that ping gets from one endpoint to another 😉

Hobbies

Running

In high school, I ran cross country and played volleyball. I wasn't good at any sports but I had fun playing any sports with my friends. Volleyball never quite stuck with me but there was something about running that was just therapeutic to me. My best mile in high school was 5:52 minutes for the 1.61 kilometer distance race. I didn't even get to break 20 minutes in high school 😅

After high school, I ran recreationally in college but that habit didn't quite stick around for my sophomore to senior year in college. For years after college, I didn't run more than 2 miles which is once in a blue moon during those years.

When the pandemic happened in 2021, all of the sudden everyone were working from home including me. Because I was a morning person, I had more free time in the morning when I didn't have to commute to work. A thought came across my mind about having better habits and being more healthy in my future years. So one day, I tried running again.

I remember that first run - it was a 2 miles run and it was not fast and I felt terrible when I was running. But, I noticed that after I ran, I was a lot more happier. I knew that in order to keep this healthy habit; I needed to make sure that I was going to stick with this. I started running 5K every single day. Times flew by during the pandemic and when I saw my friends and family in person - they commented that my appearance has changed significantly.

I remember a quote that says, "running will never get easy; you only get faster". I think about that first run in my mid 20s often. I have my bad days and good days in life, work, and etc. But on those days, they all start off with a run. That's how habits are formed - you do things consistently (I believe that you need to do that thing 21 days in a row to form a habit). I don't run 5Ks everyday anymore. It's crazy to think that I can run 8 miles on a whim compared to that first run in 2021.

My ultimate goal with running is running a sub-3 marathon in three decades of my life. At the moment of this writing, I am 29 and I am registered for the 2024 Honolulu Marathon 😁

Pickleball

After the pandemic, a bunch of my friends at work invited me to play basketball. And one of them brought over a pickleball net and set it up at the park! I had never seen or heard of pickleball 😂 But we had a lot of fun that day and I wanted to play more!

Unlike pickleball, there's a social aspect to pickleball because you have a partner (gender or mixed). I guess I do play singles but it's a bit tiring after running in the morning. I have met so many friends and people through pickleball!

My ultimate goal with pickleball is retiring and keep on playing pickleball in my old age!