I quit my job. Still figuring it out.

I thought I was building a good life. Then I remembered what a better one felt like.

So... I went back to Taiwan.

And a month later, I quit my job.

It’s been five years since I was last here, when I took a gap year after graduating to study Mandarin.

I remember how weird it felt to explain to my parents.

They were supportive, but also deeply confused. And honestly, I kind of was too.

When you grow up poor, money is everything. Stability isn’t just nice to have — it’s the whole point. And I had it lined up: a well-paying consulting job, a path that made sense.

And now I was like, surprise! I’m moving to Taiwan to study Chinese.

I didn’t really have a plan, just this vague feeling that if I didn’t go now, then I might never get another chance to.

But once I got here, something clicked. Not in a magical, I-found-my-purpose way. More like... I felt alive. I was waking up every day to learn something I cared about. Getting lost on the MRT. Screwing up tones in Mandarin. Drinking too much 7-Eleven coffee.

It was messy and lonely and really good.

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Since then, a lot’s happened.

I did the consulting thing for a few years, then jumped to tech to do strategy.

I learned how to seem confident even when I wasn’t.

I learned how to do late nights, and pretend they didn’t get to me.

I learned how to show up without actually being there.

It was messy and lonely and really hard.

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But I kept going.

Got promoted a few years later. Better title, better pay.

It was supposed to be validating — the whole reason I had been working so hard.

And I was grateful.

But instead of excitement, what I mostly felt was relief.

And I started to wonder if I’d been so focused on building the right life on paper that I’d drifted away from the version of me that actually enjoyed being in it.

I thought about how I’d spent the last five years doing everything I thought I was supposed to do, that would make me feel secure, important, like I’d made it.

And I did “make it,” I guess.

But I also kind of left myself behind.

And the weird thing was, all I could think about was Taiwan.

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I came back here in January. I was on a leave of absence from work, trying to make sense of what was going on in my head and whether I had anything left in the tank.

And somehow, Taiwan felt like the right place to be.

Not for reinvention or some dramatic reset. Just … to be here again.

To see what it felt like.

To show my girlfriend the places I used to go.

To remember who I was before I got so good at optimizing.

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I quit my job officially in March.

No dramatic exit. No big plan.

Just a truth that I finally stopped avoiding.

I didn’t want to keep pushing forward on a path that didn’t really feel like mine.

And now I'm here. Figuring it out.

Some days, it feels like a reset. Other days, like a very expensive identity crisis.

But for the first time in a while, I feel like I’m actually paying attention to myself.

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A week after I quit, I came across a sentence that struck me.

          “Leap, and the net will appear.” 

I don’t know if it’s true.

But that’s what this feels like.

Maybe it’s reckless.

          But I leapt. 

Maybe it’s brave.

          But I leapt. 

Maybe it’s both.

          Will the net appear?

I guess we’ll find out.

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