A month of change, surprises, exhaustion, distress and growth 

March was no less turbulent than February for me. Running my company at full speed. teaching and mentoring to pay the bills, doing side client work, coordinating to kickstart my furniture business while dealing with non-stop pigeon invasions on my balcony drained my energy to the bottom. 

Meanwhile, increasingly gruesome violence against Asians and Asian Americans is making me rethink how to defend ourselves and my community in a time of rampant hate crimes and unbridled bigotry. I wish I had more time dedicated to activism, but I made a mental note to catch up as my bandwidth allows. 

My friend Lu and I recently took a trip to Topanga, California, where we stayed at a beautiful and eclectic blue little bungalow. I call it the "enchanted house". It was a trip much-needed. We got to talking deep into the night; played a card game called We Are Not Really Strangers; stared at the stars in the night sky; talked about our old hurts and new wounds; ditched a homeless hitchhiker and bought the coolest sunglasses that I plan to wear to my next Elton John concert (if he will tour again). 

My education company Path Unbound has many new updates! In March, we launched the following:

1. A free portfolio evaluation service for prospective students who want to get preliminary feedback on their existing portfolios. We have seen a steady stream of evaluation submissions but need to ramp up on promotion to generate more interests. 

2. A 50% scholarship for students who self-identify as People of Color, LGBTQAIA+, current college and high school students and those who make less than $70k per year. We have received several submissions from students with very interesting backgrounds. 

3. We are going into Week 5 of Portfolio School pilot with our first cohort students of 10. Several of them have wowed me with amazing progress and transformation compared to where their portfolios were just a few weeks ago. I am very excited to see the results by the end of Week 6, when we will wrap up the pilot program and start showcasing real student work on the website to attract more students. 

4. We have recruited a group of 10 focus group participants to help us understand what the market really needs from design schools. This will be my first time conducting a formal focus group. I am excited to find out what students really need so Path Unbound can build better programs to serve them.

5. We are now officially listed on Course Report and SwitchUp, two of the biggest online design/coding school ranking websites. Check them out and give us a review if you are a current student!

6. I have completed the first podcast interview with a student organization called Design Student Organization (DSO) at McEwan University in Canada. Although a small step, I will aim to establish more and more partnerships in upcoming weeks and months. 

7. We now have 4 interns working part time for Path Unbound. Their bios are now listed on our About page. I cannot be more grateful for their amazing work. 

8. We are starting to record podcast/YouTube interviews with outstanding industry professionals who are handpicked by us. We have ~5 guests confirmed and looking for many more. If you know of anyone who may be a good fit, please recommend them to me!

9. We have launched a new blog, where we publish design related articles that are not cliche. We will aim to guest blog and partner with other blogs next. Give us a follow!

10. We have launched a brand ambassador program, where we award 10% of tuition for any successful referral. Please take advantage of this opportunity and spread the word if you know of anyone who may benefit from our programs. Reach out to me directly if you want to become a brand ambassador. 

1. My mid-century modern furniture line (tentatively named "Not Ordinary Home") is moving forward slowly but steadily. After a brief family disagreement that landed me back to therapy for a short period, I re-established boundaries with them and we are now back to a healthy and productive collaboration. We are having the first prototype manufactured in China and shipped to the US to test the market. 

I recently enrolled in a 10-week female entrepreneurship program called Selfmade by Brit Morin, founder and CEO at Brit & Co, a well-known women's lifestyle brand. One thing that I recently learned is that crowd fundraising is actually a great tool for market testing, not just getting initial funding. When the prototype is completed, I will run a crowd funding campaign to test the market before we move forward with any other manufacturing. 

It is daunting to think about doing this as a side project while running my main company at full speed. But what's life without crazy ideas? 

What do you think of the name "Not Ordinary Home" for an affordably-priced, mid-century modern and multi-functional furniture brand? Let me know if you have any suggestions. 

2. I was commissioned to design a cycling jersey for Outcycling, an LGBT cycling club in New York City. They want to have a beautiful new jersey for members to wear for their June pride ride. This was my first fashion design project and it was very fun. I just handed off the final design to the team but regrettably had to leave the rest of the project early due to my schedule, which is becoming impossible to fit in client work. I will share the finish product on cyclists when the event happens on June!