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Year in Review 2024

For me, living a meaningful life is balancing consistency and reinvention. Consistency in your values, but reinventing yourself when doing or being certain things are no longer what’s best for you. Those changes came about for me professionally this year after some deep contemplation.

For about four and a half years I have been a civil servant working on pushing international conservation policy forward. However, I had a feeling that my role was going to hit a plateau and I wanted to get ahead of it. This summer I decided to start something new.

No matter what anyone tells you, relocations are never a smooth process. I have made several of those this year and every one of them has had its struggles, but I have found a silver lining. In each one of them is the chance to outgrow—whether you are ready or not—old habits and behaviors that may have aligned themselves with the places you resided. I have made the DC area my home for the past six years and leaving it behind was one of the most difficult decisions I have made. Not because I wasn’t excited for the future, but because I had grown comfortable and safe in familiar surroundings. However, it is now time to shed off those old things that, like a cosseted blanket, while warm and familiar, can stifle you, and embrace the uncertainty surrounding change.

I ended the year with having my company (now eleven staff strong) get accepted into a startup accelerator, something that would have been unimaginable over a year ago when the idea was being sketched out in a crinkled notebook. So many people helped me out along the way—too many to list—but they include Dr. Liqing Peng, Dan Ding, Dr. Shan Wong, Raphael Yeo, BNT, Alice Soewito, Samuel Fuchs, Dr. Gabriel Bronk, Dr. Shawn Lum, Dr. Keisha Brown, Dr. Dan Chen, and Dr. Shaun Pan. Thank you for making my 2024 the foundation it was for the coming year.

New Year in Manhattan Chinatown with my parents and grandma.
Old Rag, Shenandoah National Park
Old Rag Sunrise
The first time I ever saw a siamang happened this year at Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia, courtesy of Dennis Chan.
Rocky Mountain National Park
An eastern box turtle that I regularly saw near my former NCTC office in Shepherdstown, WV. She’s normally very shy but it was nice to see her consistently. 2024/05/15
At Dhamma Dharā for a Satipaṭṭhāna retreat in Shelburne Falls, MA. 2024/10/25
Fellow Committee of 100 (C100) Next Generation Leaders members and my friends, William Du and Hang Kei Simon Wong, and a full C100 member, Brian Wong at the 2024 C100 Greater China Conference in Shanghai.
Photo Credit: William Du 2024/11/16
Best birthday gift ever, a tour of the Hing Chun Yuek villages, part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. I am in front of Mui Tsz Lam. I felt like I stepped into a Studio Ghibli film.

Comments

Dr. Carol Cowles says:

Wonderful Philip! I am delighted to know you a bit!

philiplu says:

Thanks, Carol!

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