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Year in Review 2023

As you get older you begin to appreciate more and more the friends you have made. From a spring funeral and baby shower, to a summer wedding and birthday, during a typical year I have tended to oscillate between different stages of people’s lives.

As of today, I have only gotten to personally experience one of those for myself.

Therefore, peering in from the outside for the rites and rituals that mark these milestones have created several thoughtful reflections, especially since these events are happening to people important to me. The first one is to continue to be emotionally engaged with people that you care about and not simply be a fair-weather friend. However, invest too much in either friendships or any sort of relationship and it can get a bit disproportionate. This can result in people getting deeply affected by the responses or the lack of reciprocation from the other side.

Secondly, realize that people, like ecosystems, remain dynamic and evolve over time. I have always liked the saying that, “you never step in the same river twice.” It applies to human physical, mental, and spiritual changes just as easily as the more literal landscape. This is especially noticeable with my friends since childhood, where we were in the beginning continuously experiencing the same physical space, are now being scattered globally with only digital tethers binding us. You are now given snapshots where there was once the full production. The snapshots are more jarring as changes get thrown in sharper relief.

Looking forward to finding out who everyone is.

A Patchwork of Photos

Celebrating Lunar New Year in Houston. It was my first time in Texas and I found the variety of Chinese food extraordinary, especially the Teochew restaurant.
Completing a survey in the riparian zone of the Potomac River in West Virginia. Riparian zones are important habitats that act as wildlife corridors and transfer points for terrestrial nutrition entering aquatic food webs among other ecosystem services.
Back in the country I consider my second home.
The Popinbergs!
I finally got to see Weezer live in concert this year and they did not disappoint.
A Sierra Dome spider web I saw in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods section of the Redwood National and State Parks. The courting behaviors are pretty fascinating. The female releases pheromones onto her web which the first discovering male tries frantically to remove to throw off her scent from other males. Otherwise, multiple intense phases of fighting start.
Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington with Asian American civil rights groups.
Exploring Seneca Lake along with one of the most important women in my life: my grandmother.
The National Air and Space Museum opened up their restoration hangar for the 20th anniversary of the Udvar-Hazy Center’s founding.
D.C. composting program still going strong.

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