Later tonight we will head to the airport and fly to Seoul, effectively ending my fifth diplomatic tour in Burma (Myanmar). As excited as I am for what is before us, and as much as I am ready to move forward, I inextricably feel that this departure may be the most bittersweet since we left our beloved Australia in 2019.
Tag: Resilience
The Beginning of the End
In May, we entered the last quarter of our tour. All of the storylines — my work, our lives here, and what’s next — started to converge, signaling that the beginning of the end was underway.
100-Day Countdown
We returned from our R&R to the United States in early May to a change in seasons. Burma’s hot, dry weather had given way rather abruptly to the equally hot but much rainier monsoon season, about a month earlier than I had expected. After just one day of overlap in the office, my boss departed for his own R&R in the United States for a few weeks. As I assumed the acting position, I was keenly aware that the countdown of our last 100 days at post was just getting underway.
Port in a Storm
As I wrote about in previous posts, we spent our April R&R in the United States: the first leg in northern Virginia tackling our to-do lists, the second in Georgia for a family wedding, and the third in Washington state with my dad.
Normally, my dad’s house is a port in a storm. This visit was no exception. Because it was the last stop on our trip before returning to Burma for the final quarter of our diplomatic tour, however, our time with my dad also had to be divided between enjoying his company and running errands.
Thingyan (Water Holiday)
Thingyan is one of Myanmar’s most important holidays and marks the traditional Burmese New Year. Celebrated over several days each April, it is a time of renewal, reflection, and community.
The festival is best known for its joyful water-throwing traditions, in which people splash each another with water as a symbolic act of washing away the misfortunes and impurities of the past year. In real life, this looks like a street festival in which everyone is happy to be thoroughly drenched. Beyond the festivities, many Burmese people observe Thingyan through acts of merit-making, including visits to pagodas, donations to monasteries and charitable causes, and time spent with family. Traditional music, dance, and foods are also central to the celebration. Combining both exuberant public festivities and deeply rooted spiritual practices, Thingyan reflects values of generosity, reconciliation, and hopes for a prosperous and peaceful year ahead.
Not Your Content: A Complicated Witness
For the past six months, I have been cooperating with the reckless driving case against the truck driver who hit and severely injured me last November. While as a victim I have appreciated having an opportunity to be heard, the process has — perhaps unsurprisingly — required me to repeatedly present my trauma for examination, documentation, and validation, often with unclear results.
Year in Review: 2025 Blog Stats and Recap
I have both been writing this post for months and procrastinating finishing it. I normally publish my annual recap and blog stats in January, or at least earlier in the year.
But I hesitated to relive the personal and professional difficulties I experienced in 2025. A stressful international move, a life-threatening accident, family illness, job insecurity, work-related chaos, and policy whiplash were all lowlights in 2025. It’s a lot of work to dig through it all and think about how to organize and convey the details in a way that’s interesting to people aside from me.
Upon reflection, though, in characteristic form, I decided that feels like all the more reason to write this post — even if it took me a while to find the words, and even if no one else particularly notices whether I keep up what has quietly become an annual tradition. I would notice. And as the memories slowly fade around the edges, I think in the future I would regret letting a year like this pass without summary.
Before the Tipping Point
March felt like something of an in-between point on this tour: past the halfway mark, but still before it was time to worry about another PCS move.
The weather carried the feeling of a perpetual lazy summer. I was no longer struggling with a walker or wheelchair, and spent much of my time focused on physical therapy. I was endlessly grateful to have regained some mobility and freedom.
We were done with our January and February trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand, and soon it would be time for our big April R&R trip back to the United States. But for the moment, it was simply good to be at home.
A New Normal
As I mentioned in a previous post, February was the month where life started to slowly feel like it was getting back to normal again for us in Burma. We returned from our R&R in Vietnam and Indonesia with some fresh perspective and gratitude, ready to hit the reset button.
As we reached the halfway point of our tour and I was finally able to leave my walker and cane behind for good, we focused on making memories and ensuring my accident neither became the legacy of our time in Rangoon nor overshadowed the time we had left.
A Moment of Silence
It was a year ago today (March 28) that a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Burma (Myanmar), leveling buildings, destroying infrastructure, and killing and displacing thousands.
A few hours later, on the other side of the world, March 28 dawned in northern Virginia. I arrived at FSI early in the morning before Burmese language class and sat down to do my homework. Checking the news for any Myanmar-related stories I could do a report on, I stumbled upon news of the disaster that had happened in Sagaing, near Mandalay, while I was sleeping.
Pool Villa Life, Part II
Before too much more time elapses, I want to finish sharing my thoughts about the third part of our January R&R — in Bali, Indonesia.
On My Own Two Feet
I’m pausing my recounting of our January R&R travelogues to share an update—and a few reflections—on my recovery from my truck vs. pedestrian accident last November. Although it occurred three-and-a-half months (15 weeks) ago, the importance of rehabilitating my injuries during the remainder of my tour in Burma still looms large.
Pool Villa Life, Part I
I planned our January R&R from my hospital bed in Bangkok last December. My intention was to pack the beginning of the trip with sightseeing and activities, then gradually slow the pace into a more leisurely vacation as the days went on. After our busy four-day visit to Hanoi, we headed to our second destination in Vietnam—the coastal city of Da Nang—where a private pool villa awaited us.
Holiday in Hanoi, Part II
January found V and me on R&R in Vietnam, a country we had never visited before. Our first stop was Hanoi—the country’s vibrant capital. Its streets buzzed with the cacophony of commerce and the chaotic crush of cars and motorbikes. It felt so different from Rangoon—more optimistic, more productive, life moving in fast-forward motion. I had only been out of the hospital for a month after being hit by a truck eight weeks prior, and I was still using a walker. But I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying Hanoi as much as I could.
[This post is the second in a series. To read the post about the first half of the trip, please click on the link.]
Both/And
My truck-versus-pedestrian accident was 10.5 weeks ago — almost two and a half months. One of the most difficult aspects of my recovery, aside from the physical injuries themselves, has been holding space for very different, simultaneous thoughts and feelings about what happened and how to move forward.
Collecting Postcards 