gap year overview based on locations




Let me preface by saying that this is not by any means a truthful representation of the year. A lot of significant moments were undocumented. And perhaps one of the most important experiences of the year ---- living by myself, feeling various types of loneliness and thinking about accomplishment and satisfaction ---- was simply undocumentable through photos or even texts.

This is just my self-indulgent attempt at remembering the beauty of the year, while I was anything but mentally stable for a whole year and three months.

So please, don’t be fooled by the sometimes beautiful appearance of the pictures. 


East Coast broadly
5.20.19 - 6.8.19


1```The Start???
 2```Friends, old & new
 3```Lots of coffee shops


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎got my first tattoo
︎meeting up with high school friends
︎Princeton alum reunion
︎Princeton graduation
︎my first psychedelic experience





🧐️


︎thinking about connections between all the seemingly disparaging things I was interested in 





New Hampshire
6.8.19 - 6.16.19


4```A dream in the middle of nowhere


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎retreat with some college friends





🧐️


︎thinking about the absurdities about being a human, and how that’s funny




Philadelphia
6.17.19 - 8.13.19


5```When work and leisure become one
 6```I just want to feel special!!!
 7```Yikes * 4
 8```New challenges!!!
 9```Building a world
 10```Coming together
 11```The worst time, the best time
 12```A few twists and turns later...




🤸🏻‍♀️


︎independent research at Penn
︎applying for Gnomon’s 2-year program





🧐️


︎thinking a LOT about creativity. how i’d lost it. how i could regain it. wanted to prove to myself that i could paint imaginative things.
︎thinking about beliefs, religion, cults. Am i able to devote myself to doing anything without making it a religious experience, or is religion fundamentally about the adamant belief in a thing being “the truth” and giving a way of the self


Visiting The Shed! I loved the experimental energy in their open call show!!



Portland
8.14.19 - 8.20.19


13```Being inspired around



🤸🏻‍♀️


︎visiting Cammie’s hometown with Megan





🧐️


︎thinking about the creative community

talking about how we couldn't track any single droplet the whole time in this water fall just one of the many beautiful places we ate at


Beijing, Shanghai
8.21.19 - 9.8.19


14```A homeless going home
 15```Measuring myself
 16```Thinking about failure for the nth time


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎going to art shows and book fairs
︎meeting up with middle school friends




🧐️


︎thinking about failure
solo show by one of my favorite artists Lu Yang Art book fair Found a few new coffee shops near my neighborhood~




Inner Mongolia
9.9.19 - 9.15.19


17```Inner Mongolia


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎cousin’s 12th birthday
Mid-Autumn Festival




Kathmandu, Pokhara
9.20.19 - 9.27.19


18```Nepal


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎traveling with my parents



19```Summer summary (next stops)

London
9.29.19 - 12.21.19


20```Shedding some dead skin
 21```The happiest
 22```Feeling alive not living my life, I guess
 23```Thoughts on creativity
 24```The most important project of my gap year
 25```The purpose of it all
 26```Reframing my life’s purpose
 27```Last days in London


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎studying game art full-time
︎started my documentary project (applied for Sundance Documentary Fund, did shoots with UCL SAP’s co-founder and current president, interviewed Karl Friston and Robin Carhart-Harris)
︎hanging out with college/hs/elementary school friends who were studying there or visited





🧐️


︎thinking about the shadows
Experiencing Ben Lunato's A Ton of Feathers at EGX in London My life 5 days of the week for 12 weeks straight first shoot for the documentary! helping out with a short film. i'd just met the director from a mutual friend a weeks prior Iris!! Yayyy college friend visiting me part 1! Elin & her tomatoes Yayyy college friend visiting me part 2! Almost exactly a year later, Luca and I made another crazy meal Aesthetically tripping with new friends I made in London Nothing felt better & crazier than meeting up with two of my frist American friends in London. We first met each other in summer of 2013... Sometimes I wonder if I was actually busier in London than when I was at Princeton



28```Mid-gap year reflection

Beijing
12.22.19 - 1.12.20, 1.21.20-1.25.20


29```China


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎showing Diana around
︎pulling together the crowdfunding campaign
︎reaching out to bajillion film professionals and potential donors, barely got any response





🧐️


︎thinking about connections and love


brought Diana to my elementary school with me When someone knows you so well and just gives you the perfect gift at the perfect time ever... I was obsessed with nanoblocks in senior spring of high school, so Diana bought the phoenix one to assemble with me mini high school reunion at Tsinghua!! Jess brought us into the new year celebration event at Tsinghua's art school~ This might be our family tradition for new year now :) I love it so much Emily!! An hour before 2020, I made Diana record a video with me, in which we just talked about our thoughts and feelings for 2020 and the next decade. Lol little did we know what 2020 was going to give us... Barkley and Jessica!! Jimin!! A very very simple celebration for the Lunar New Year with my mom, while my dad was in Hubei with his mom. This was my first time celebrating LNY with a family member since 2013!



Shanghai
1.13.20 - 1.20.20


29```China


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎max/msp
︎more documentary work
Walking across central Shanghai for almost two hours at 3am with my new friends was so wholesome I guess we were at a night club but the four of us were really just there to study our teacher's new media art performance. We were actually having conversations about the technology he used... I went to bed at 7am the whole time and my new friends ended up staying that late with me every day...



Park City
1.25.20 - 2.2.20


30```Sundance


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎volunteering at Sundance
        ︎Sutu
        ︎Ai weiwei
︎meeting people
︎raised 20k

I have no words. How did I just end up talking to Ai Weiwei for half an hour?!! I was assigned as one of the few volunteers at Spaced Out (the VR experience I was curious about the most), out of 1000+ volunteers at Sundance, without me requesting anythign from my volunteer coordinator (she had zero idea I was even interested in VR). I still haven't gotten over this... Spaced Out was likely the first underwater VR experience, and it was simply surreal... I was floating in the pool, hearing cosmic sounds, while "flying" towards and away from the moon in the VR experience Absolutely beautiful performance... Wholesome pizza-making party organized by someone I don't know in a house and ~50 people showed up Kenzie and Kira!!


Los Angeles
2.3.20 - 2.16.20


31```Finally, LA


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎one more interview,
︎organizing, building a team





🧐️


︎thinking about achievement and desire for achievement
After a slightly strange conversation...I was questioning life (yet again) facing this beautiful view I was the first visitor to Sutu's studio in LA~ He's such a creative artist and I still can't believe I was there looking / experencing his art for literally three? four? hours! I tried floatation tank! It got mildly existential... Sarit!!



Oaxaca
2.17.20 - 3.8.20


32```Mexico and my first artist residency


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎first artist residency





🧐️


︎thinking about the bubbles in the world, and how, the world is so big, and people are so busy carrying on with their own lives, that no one is really watching you all the time, which was a freeing realization.
amazing meals in the house every day one of my work stations weaving takes ~so~long~ my first time watching moonrise



Bay Area
3.9.20 - 3.16.20


33```COVID-19, Bay Area, flashing strobe light


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎three more interviews
︎adapting to covid
view from the top of the group house Sonia stayed in Sonia! Quintin! Andres' essential oil collection



Philadelphia
3.17.20 - 3.28.20


34```A paulse,,,,,,a start......(again)


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎figuring out where to go
︎officially quarantined & started learning Blender





🧐️

︎thinking about how I never managed to feel less restless in my mind throughout the gap year: why do I keep wanting to run away and escape into a new life and a new self? What’s the inner work that I should do to understand this more?
Eating Tacoria in this specific library room in LCA with Elie was just, wonderful. I can't stress enough how much I loved this moment... When I got on the bus, after a short visit to Princeton, Elin and Elie waved huge goodbye's at me as the bus drove away and I didn't know when I'd see them again In explaining social distancing, we weren't social distancing...



Simpsonville
3.29.20 - 5.28.20


35```The formless self
 36```p/a/r/t/s
 37```21 and confused
 38```First week of adulthood? ?? ???
 39```Just creating



🤸🏻‍♀️


︎staying with my friend Alex
︎started collaboration with QRI
︎naturally picked up some digital media things
︎allowed myself to rest & “recuperate”





🧐️


︎ thought about realistic matters. what did i do in the year. how am i going to earn a living in the future?
        ︎ started feeling insufficient
I'm pretty sure when I took this photo, I was saying that I just couldn't believe after half a year of almost meeting each other, I ended up in Alex's house in SC and was going to live there for at least a month! Just another 2020 thing. Watching Tiger King... We did a session with the essential oils QRI mailed us, except I don't know why Alex was smelling the coffee here I recorded several videos of myself ranting all the confusions about my elusive career path... I was going to put them together into a video to share as an update, but eventually decided it wasn't worth anyone's time to watch. Talked at the back yard about the retreat Alex missed last year Trying to figure out his life. I thought it was a super significant moment Kira picked me up from Alex's house and there was a rainbow!



Asheville
5.28.20 - 8.6.20


40```Read with me: mass incarceration, prison abolition, criminal justice and intersections
 41```A short list of worlds I enjoyed
42```Living with unrest & irregular bursts of energies in scattered places while being trapped indoors
 43```Calling myself an artist
 44```2 months in Asheville, and creating Looking At You
45```One internship and three projects (film, architecture, music video and web book(


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎meeting up with Kira
︎officially dived into digital media art
︎IFP internship
︎worked on multiple projects




🧐️


︎thinking about the creative community
︎thinking about the various types of loneliness and what meaning I could get out of them
helped out at two music video shoots with Kira and Robert! doing final presentation for the architecture summer camp



Princeton
8.6.20 - 8.28.20


46```Back to Princeton & saying goodbye, again


🤸🏻‍♀️


︎dropping the documentary project
︎organizing co-living programs
︎meeting up with friends!!
︎reflecting on the year





🧐️


︎thought about local communities, settling, my floater personality

ran into Elie on my grocery run Elie showing me the oscilloscope project he'd been working on this summer we backkk at Rojo's surreal Didn't know I'd eat Peking duck here :o how did I end up here??




End of gap year series


Things I didn’t know I’d learn this year
Major directions for approaching the gap year as. acreative