I grew up as an only child in Hawaii. My mother and I used to commute on flights between Oahu and Kauai every weekend since I was very young and this type of travel continued on for the next 15 years. So I flew all aircraft types Hawaiian and Aloha had from DC-3s, Viscounts, F27s and DC-6Bs to jets. I used to daydream about flying because it was in my blood to fly as if I were riding everyday in my parent's car. I also rode public transportation a lot in Hawaii. Years later, for my thesis in graduate school, I decided to go back to my childhood dreams and developed an architecture thesis based on transportation.

Today, I am a transportation planning manager for a public transportation authority. I plan very large rail projects. I do travel for work, particularly for conferences domestically and internationally as part of what I do. Research is part of my work as I am a member of the Transportation Research Board. Flying is still part of me as it was when I was a child. While I cannot say that I can fly to 8 different airports and come home in one day, I can at least visit friends and attend transportation events from Singapore to Spain via the Pacific and the Atlantic during a small window in my schedule. I think flying will always be a part of me because of my parents training me to fly with them since I was young and that flying was the only way we could get between the Hawaiian Islands in those days.