Return to Myself

society, culture, personal, journals, education, self improvement · EN-US

I am a first-generation immigrant to the United States. Work brought my husband and me here in 1998. We found our home on the Eastside of Seattle, where we have lived for the past twenty-eight years. In the summer of 2021, I suffered a stroke. The five years since have been a journey of recovery and rehabilitation, of finding bits of myself again while also forging a new identity. One question people often ask me is how I have managed to stay positive through all of this. I created Return to Myselfpartly to answer that question—and to give other stroke survivors and caregivers a glimpse into what that journey has actually looked like. The way back to myself has not always been easy. These are reflections on recovery, creativity, relationships, setbacks, small victories, and the unexpected ways in which a life can take shape again. I am an engineer, an artist and painter, a musician, an organizer—and n