🌿 tech_care[5]: on taking a break to take care of loved ones
and closing out the first season of Tech Care
Welcome to Tech Care, where we explore what it means to build tech that cares, so that we can take care — of ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. You can find past issues here, and join us here:
🌸 musings in full bloom today:
spending quality time with family
on taking time off, and the importance of taking care IRL
On taking a break, the changing of seasons, and our season finale
Hi friends,
Hope you’ve been taking good care of yourselves! It’s been a minute since we’ve chatted, and I’ve missed you all so much.
Recently, I’ve been mostly offline — for really lovely reasons (more face time with family and friends, more time spent outside) and for less lovely ones (feeling really burnt out, supporting my grandma through her post-surgery recovery process).
It has been a gentle reminder that quality time with loved ones is never promised. Since the beginning of June, I’ve been spending more time caring for my grandma and supporting my family through tough times. I paused all of my side projects, including this newsletter, in order to invest 110% of my time and energy on caring for others. Although at times tiring and emotionally taxing, every single second spent caring for loved ones was worth it, because at the end of the day, what matters most to me in life is the people.
Being offline and fully present with loved ones has given me time to think deeply, so with this in mind, today’s issue will be:
More of a personal reflection, with a little less tech and a lot more care
The final issue of the first season of Tech Care - in the spirit of taking a break to fully rest & recharge ❤️
🍵 Conversations of Care: A Brief Reflection on Time
On spending quality time with family — Since the beginning of COVID, I’ve been back home with my family, and wouldn’t have had it any other way. While there were moments where I questioned my choices against that of my peers (“why are a bunch of tech folks traveling to Cancun in the middle of a pandemic?”), I know that this was the right decision for me in the short and long-run. I’m grateful I was able to take some of the burden off of my parents by helping out around the house and caring for family, especially as the eldest child in an Asian-American household. I’m grateful that I got the chance to learn how to make some of my Grandma’s Chinese recipes and eat delicious home-cooked meals. And most of all, I’m grateful for beautiful moments of quality time with family — something that I will never take for granted. As I start my long-awaited move to NYC this fall, I know that even hundreds of miles away, family will always be close at heart. Also we got a puppy back in March so I will be visiting home at least once a month. 🐶
On taking time off, and the importance of taking care IRL — As someone who shares a lot about the importance of care online, I realized that what I write/tweet about means very little if I don’t take time to put it into practice in real life. So this past month, I did just that. I took a break to support my grandma through her post-knee surgery recovery process. I had a teary heart-to-heart with my mom about how hard it was to see my grandma go through so much pain, and how inspired we are by her strength. I finally got to meet up with some friends and coworkers, after a year of FaceTimes and Google Meets. I took time to recharge in NYC, with some of my favorite people in my favorite city in the world. After being so fixated on taking care of others for so long, it was so healing to take care of myself. I’m writing this issue hours before I finally take some time off from work, and go on a much-needed vacation with family. I’m so excited and grateful to finally have some time to rest, recharge, & rejuvenate after a difficult past couple of months — here’s to all of us taking some time for ourselves this summer.
On taking a break, the changing of seasons, and our season finale — Much like the changing of the seasons in our physical world, our mental worlds change and evolve over time. In taking a break this summer to care IRL, I'm excited to spend quality time with loved ones, as well as spend quality time with myself: resting & recharging, planting new seeds of thought, cultivating my mental and digital garden, and coming back with more musings in full bloom — on life, tech, and of course, care. I’ve been so inspired by the kind messages I’ve gotten from you all, and can’t wait to continue to write more, and grow this incredible community. I’m so excited for what’s in store for us in the future, but until then —
💌 Take care (& we’ll chat again soon),
Michelle