This year, some of the prompts for my blog posts will be provided to me by various AI platforms. This will be the crux of Project AI: an opportunity to rethink my life trajectory with the help of an external lens. I have since uploaded my entire blog archive for ChatGPT and Gemini to read, allowing “them” to witness what I have written about in the past and, in turn, suggest blog topics that are grounded in where I’ve been rather than disconnected from it. Alongside this, I will continue documenting my parenting adventures here, carrying forward the ongoing journey of life with Kai.
A watershed moment is a moment in life that dramatically alters its course. Many decisions feel insignificant at the time, yet later reveal themselves as critical junctions in the chaotic story we call life.
Perhaps the most significant watershed moment that has shaped my life thus far was my decision to volunteer at Anime Expo 2018. After serving as a general volunteer in 2017, I found the experience largely uninspiring and forgettable. Yet when an email appeared inviting applications for an assistant manager position in the registration department, I decided—almost out of sheer boredom—to apply.
What followed was a chain of events that ultimately altered my life in ways I could not have anticipated. Attending the interview. Being accepted for the role. Spending months navigating imposter syndrome, unsure of what the job actually required until the convention itself began. Still, I stayed. And in doing so, I met Katherine—an encounter that, in hindsight, sealed my fate as a future husband and eventual father.
Although my “weeb” days are long behind me, I remain deeply grateful to Anime Expo for the role it played in reshaping my life. Without that moment, I may very well still be a single bachelor living in Los Angeles and teaching at Rise Kohyang Middle School (*GAG). Some might call it an act of God. I’m more inclined to say it was simply fate, quietly nudging me toward where I was meant to be.
