Urban Mantra: Boston

It was August 1999 when I first landed in the US as a 17-year old, nervous yet excited to begin a new chapter of my life. I was about to start college with big ambitions and so much to prove. Fifteen years later, I'm leaving behind the country that I've called home for most of my adult life. Somewhere in this passage of time, I evolved from being a shy, naive teenager into a confident and independent woman. I met and married the love of my life and had a baby, now the second love of my life. I made amazing, lifelong friends. I lived in three cities (Boston, Austin, and New York City) and enjoyed each one at different stages of my life. I got a degree and became a doctor. I learned to embrace fitness and ran marathons. I toobed down the Guadalupe River. I learned to appreciate country music. I performed a dance to a Bollywood song on a moving boat for a Holi celebration. I took part in a flash mob dance to Sheila Ki Jawani on Wall street. I explored national parks and attended live music festivals. I traveled to Iceland where I hiked up a glacier, boated inside a volcanic crater in El Salvador, and jumped off a cliff in Spain. I ran up 46 floors of the Empire State Building while I was pregnant. I attended New York Fashion Week. I blogged!

Life recently threw us a curveball and we're now moving to Singapore! I'm sad to leave behind my sister and my friends in the US who became like family to me. Yet I look forward to new adventures in a new country.

If you follow us on Instagram, you would have seen pictures I posted of my trip back to NYC - city street scenes that inspire me, places I visited, friends and family I spent time with...until it all culminated in our packing up our life into little boxes to be shipped halfway across the world. American the beautiful, I shall certainly miss you. Singapore, here we come!