A lot happened in Hveragerði. A lot also didn’t happen. I was there for two weeks. I didn’t actually want to stay there when the time came, but Iceland has a housing crisis. If I canceled that stay, my only other choice would have been to leave the country. I had booked an apartment in Kópavogur for a month (basically Reykjavík), and I knew I wanted to be in a place with more people and more going on. But I had two weeks in Hveragerði to get through first…

Earlier in the year, before my move to Iceland, I read Factotum by Charles Bukowski. It was a strange book, but I ended up learning that he also wrote poetry. Bukowski was quite the character, as personified in his books, so I was curious as to what his poems were about. The first poem I read, I Have This New Room, stood out to me. This was my first time engaging with poetry, and I was impressed by its ability to express so much in so few words…

In my career, I have done a little bit of everything.

Professionally, I have degrees in computer science and math. I started my PhD in computer graphics. I developed desktop apps and mobile apps. I worked in machine learning and published papers on biodiagnostics – work that my university selected me as a "World Changer" for, showcasing me on promotional material and nominating me for scholarships…