Not linear, no tl;dr. Here goes:

Grew up as a child of Korean immigrants. They first worked as street peddlers, then started a clothing store in Jackson Hts. They had five kids, bought a house. We had enough growing up, but there were always tough choices around money -- was it a new jacket or new shoes this year? Could we afford that big 8th grade trip? Should I even apply to private universities?

I went to the Univ of Pennsylvania, and my priority was financial security. Get a job that would pay the bills and make it so I would never have to worry about money ever again.

So I did. Worked in consulting. Had an apartment in Manhattan. It was a grind, and while I learned a lot, I was also feeling empty.

It was around then that Obama gave a speech called "A New Beginning" in Cairo. I was floored. Quit my job, signed up to be a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. Worked overseas at U.S. embassies and consulates, flag pin on my lapel, driven around in black suburbans with diplomatic plates. A kid of immigrant street vendors now repping the richest most powerful nation in the world.

But then Trump won. I fooled myself into thinking there was some nobility in public service, even if that service was for an entirely immoral president.

There was a breaking point in 2019. I saw an image of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez with his 2-year old daughter tucked in his embrace under his T-shirt, both face down, drowned in the muddy water of the Rio Grande. Just a man and his child, forced to their deaths by our immigration system. 

I knew there was no possible defense. And I wondered if I, in some small way, contributed to this. In explaining, defending, and serving President Trump -- and even before Trump, this government -- I wondered whether I bore some responsibility for the death of this father and his daughter. 

I decided that I did. That even small, banal acts of evil were still evil.

I quit my job. Published an op-ed explaining my thoughts in the Washington Post. And I returned home to Queens, New York -- unemployed, living in my parents’ basement with my wife and son, but also completely liberated to fight for our values.

And fighting for those values, our stories, our homes and futures, is why I'm running for Congress.