This summer, I had the fortunate opportunity to receive the Cansbridge Fellowship, a fellowship that selects a cohort of Undergraduate Students across Canada to pursue their own internships in Asia.

I chose to do Biophysics and Biosensor Research at The National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Hsinchu, Taiwan (also known as Taiwan’s Silicon Valley) for 2 months in July and August.

What I did not expect was the amount of personal growth on a philosophical level that I would experience, which taught me the beauty of life and meaning.

Hsinchu, Taiwan

I will start off with the work that I was doing at the Dr. Chia-Ching Chang Lab at NYCU. My work extended a broad scope — everything from plasmid extractions to DNA analysis to electrochemical impedance sensing. I learned some pretty fun and interesting things in the world of electrochemical biosensing and realized the challenges the world of electrochemical sensors face; from technical difficulties in redox chemistries to market dynamics of pricing biosensors.

I was doing research at the NYCU Bo’ai Campus which was roughly a 30 minute walk from where I was staying, the Graduate Student Dormitories at the NYCU Guangfu Campus.

This was the first challenge I faced in Taiwan, the living conditions for Student Residences isn’t exactly as nice as the University Residences back home in Canada.

However, I adapted pretty quickly to my new environment; growing more accustomed to the grunginess of the residences.

What I grew to quickly appreciate the most was the social atmosphere of Taiwan.

I loved how all the local people in Taiwan were so welcoming and friendly. I started to make friends with people on the street, at convenience stores, and the campus dining halls. This was something I honestly never really did out of context before — randomly walking up to people and learning more about their life.

For some reason, I started doing this without really thinking too much about it. Perhaps it was derivatized off the fact that I didn’t really know anyone here to begin with or know the language or was a 12 hour flight away from home, halfway across the world. It was an exhilarating, new, and fun experience learning all the different stories and backgrounds that people came from in Taiwan.

Taipei, Taiwan

I love Taipei.

I spent a lot of my time on weekends visiting it quite regularly and made friends with people there. A memorable experience was when around half of our Cansbridge Fellowship cohort came to Taipei to visit, we enjoyed touring around with my local friends.

Jiufen Old Street, Taiwan

Another very cool spot that I had the chance to go and visit was the Jiufen Old Street. The views speak for itself.

Masason Foundation Summer Program in Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan

While I was in Taiwan, I had the fortunate pleasure of attending the Masason Foundation Summer Program in Tokyo and Kyoto.

This was one of the most memorable highlights of my time in Asia this summer.

I will keep it short here, there are some experiences that you will remember for a lifetime with the group of people you experienced it with. There are no amount of words in the dictionary or pictures or videos in the world to represent the full extent of the feeling of that experience. To an extent, it stays as a cherished memory within only our hearts.

Singapore

I visited Singapore for a relatively short trip. I visited my friends (and made new ones along the way) who live there and I had always wanted to visit the beautiful architecture and urban design present in Singapore.

Life and Meaning

So what does all this travelling and experiences have to do with Life and Meaning?

It comes down to personal alignment.

There are so many distractions around you constantly being fed 24/7 without even being cognizant of it’s presence. Every unit of information that is interpreted is an input in an ever-evolving consciousness interpretation function of the human mind.

Travelling with unique moments of discomfort and novelty forces you to stop and think. The raw power to figure things out. No other stimulus, just you and your thinking. Often the correct answers derive from interpreting external stimulus within an internal alignment function to derivatize the correct next step output. Such alignment functions can be inferred from a place of introspection with minimal stochastic inputs.

Asia gave me a unique playground to think. Minimal to no external immediate interpretable input stimulus helped me realign my curiosities and natural drive for doing things within myself. I realized my ability to truly be happy and grateful for everything around you and being responsible to yourself for what you internally feel is the right thing to do.

Life is all about doing the simple things well.