I moved to the US in January of 2024 to attend Cal State East Bay, where I lived in the dorms for two years. The campus was in Hayward, a city in the Bay Area about an hour from San Francisco (SF).
I graduated on May 17th, and the next morning I drove to Los Angeles (LA) with my family to start my new job at Favorited as a software engineer. The company worked in person and had invited me to relocate to Santa Monica, where their main office was located.
The following two weeks were hectic. I had to move out of the dorms, pack everything, drive from SF to LA, unpack, start a new job, meet new people, and quickly get up to speed at the company while also trying to enjoy some vacation time with my family. All of that completely disrupted my routine, but things eventually settled down.
Soon after, my sister returned to Miami. I knew I wouldn’t see her again until August, when I would visit for her graduation. My parents flew back to Peru the next night. They drove to SF in the morning, spent a few hours there, grabbed a bite, and then went to the airport. I missed them deeply once they left.
Their visit meant a lot to me because those two weeks were incredibly special. First, I graduated from college. Then, I moved to a new city and started a new job. And on May 26, 2025, I turned 24.
It amazed me to think that just three years earlier I had still been learning to code, and now I was working as a software engineer at Favorited, an HF0 startup. Living in Marina del Rey, being just 10 minutes away from Venice Beach on a scooter, earning what I earned, and working in a field I hadn’t studied in college but learned entirely through YouTube had all felt surreal. It was like something out of a movie.
For a kid from a small country like Peru, that life amazed me every day. Leaving work at 6:30 pm, walking through the streets of Santa Monica, and watching the sunset made me feel like I truly loved my life.
Looking back, I realized I wanted to practice more gratitude. I wanted to reach a higher level of consciousness and develop a new identity. By then, I knew that what I used to dream was possible. I had seen it for myself. At the time, I hadn’t had enough space to reflect on it, learn from it, or share it with others, but I promised myself I would.
I wanted to live more incredible experiences, and I wanted to help others do the same. I wanted to live life to the fullest. The two years leading up to that point had felt dull—I had done little besides coding—and while that discipline got me to where I was, I knew it wouldn’t take me to the next level I wanted to reach. Still, I had come to learn that everything worthwhile required sacrifice, and I was honored to make it.