25 Facts about Heesun

While thinking of these 25 facts, I tried to provide an accurate portrayal of my short 26 years, from childhood to now. Whether you’re an avid reader of MWT or a first time visitor, thanks for taking the time to check out the blog and I hope you learn something new!

1. I used to be left handed when I was a kid, which worried my mom for some reason, so she switched my pencil from my left hand to my right until I became right handed.

2. In seventh grade, my English teacher suggested I plagiarized my short story assignment because he didn’t believe I was capable of writing it. I was surprised that he thought my writing was good enough to be plagiarized, so in a weird way I thought of it as a compliment.

3. Sharon and I watched all seven Harry Potter movies in the span of two days. It was great and involved lots of Asian snacks and green tea juice boxes.

4. Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are two of my heroes.

5. After living in Spain for two months, I came back to the States with nine cavities. Apparently I have deep grooves in my teeth that were not immune to the copious amounts of wine drunk that summer. After two long dentist sessions, I promised myself that I would brush my teeth not just twice a day but 3 times a day. This is still a work in progress.

6. I have embraced the fact that I’m caffeine addicted and look forward to my cup of morning gold each morning. This might be a sign of addiction, but it gives me a body high and makes me feel like I can handle whatever the day (at least that morning) throws at me. Yup, most likely a sign of addiction.

7. I think about travel way too much (hence the blog) and I’m finding that the more I write and research cities for posts, the more appreciative I become of the experiences I’ve been lucky enough to have. It’s cool to see just how much travel can have and continue to have a positive impact on your life. You can read more about how we started this blog here.

8. One of the things on my to-do list is to build a bike. I’ve watched this video as a first step and already learned so many new words, like caliper. Please tell me you’ve somehow casually used that in a sentence.

9. My favorite Wait but Why article covers how to “rise above the fog” and how a search for a universal truth can be adopted as a religion. Every time I reread it, I gain something new from it.

10. The Fermi paradox fascinates me. Are we before the Great Filter? After it? Who knows?????

11. One of my favorite quotes is by Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” I’ve definitely come to embrace the weird, unconventional parts of myself and this is a constant ongoing process. But there’s only one of you in the world and as cheesy as this sounds, your friends and family love you for you.

12. I’m a firm believer that experiences > things.

13. After debating for about a year on whether or not to get a tattoo, I decided to take the plunge and walked into a well-respected tattoo parlor in Florida. When I told the tattoo artist what design I wanted and where I wanted it (on my inner left wrist) he said that the size would have to be about 5 times bigger than what I originally envisioned to prevent wrinkling and distortion over time. This is when I chickened out and left. But props to this girl who had no such qualms.

14. My first brush with thievery was at 7 years old in Oakland. My sister and I rode our bikes to our neighbor’s house and when we came back out, both of our bikes were both gone. We spent the rest of the afternoon going door-to-door asking neighbors if they had seen it. It was a good lesson in teaching us to take better care of our things, but also, that a thing is just a thing.

15. I love reading. So does Sharon. It got to the point that as a kid, my mom used to be scared to take me to Borders and Barnes and Nobles because after zooming around for a bit, I’d come to her with a stack of books. She used to set limits on how many I could buy and I honed my negotiating skills in trying to increase the number. Also, apparently I used to cross streets haphazardly with my head still in a book and as a 2 year old would (pretend to) read dictionaries, albeit upside down.

16. I have been told that I am easily excited and am curious about everything. I want to learn as much as I can while I have the privilege of being alive on this planet

17. I wrote my college admissions essay on how my mom made kimchi and to her delight, ended up getting into my (and her) top choice, UC Berkeley. #fueledbykimchi

18. Meeting former Dubs player David Lee in person showed me just how humble the Warriors are and also how much they love MMA fights.

19. Swimming in a secluded waterfall at Chiang Mai, Thailand after a long day of hiking left me blissed out and awfully close to feeling completely at peace.

20. When I can’t sleep, I like to imagine the ocean’s waves and then I match my breathing to it (so when the tide comes in, you breathe in, and when the tide goes out, you breathe out). Upon first hearing of this notion, I quickly dismissed it as something too “New Agey”, but it actually works for me every time.

21. While staying with couch surfers in Utah, they showed me a 3D printer that they built themselves and also a pretty cool photo app called Photosphere, which allows you to take 360 panoramas and later when you open up the picture in the app, as you move your phone, the picture moves with you. The app is available for the iPhone and there is also a similar version for Android.

22. When I like a Netflix show, I can straight marathon for hours on end. Some of the shows I’ve binged on are: Black Mirror, House of Cards, The Layover, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

23. I love eggs. I can literally eat eggs every day, and pretty much did so in college. My go to was eggs, rice, and gochujang (Korean chili pepper paste, aka a staple in my diet).

24. At 13 years old, my mom, sister, and I were shopping at Costco (they always get me with their free samples) when this man approached us asking if my mom ever considered letting my sister and I model. As sketch as this sounds, what I remember most is my mom’s response. “Oh, I don’t think they’re that pretty.” I attribute whatever modesty and humbleness I have to my mom.

25. I am always down for a good pun. Always. Seas the day, namsayin?