I didn’t arrive here by a straight line.

Education never felt like a natural fit, but graphic communication was the subject that stayed with me. University gave me freedom, creativity and plenty of nights out, although I still had no clear picture of the life I wanted. I eventually left without a degree, returned to the family takeaway and spent a period working, gaming and drifting rather than choosing a direction for myself.

Growing up British-born Chinese, I understood the pull towards education, stability and a respectable career. Those expectations came from care, but I did not always know where my own voice fitted within them. A large part of my journey has been learning that respecting where I come from does not mean following somebody else’s script for my life.

Volunteering in Kathmandu, Nepal, gave me a different view of the choices available to us. I came home wanting to make better use of life, even though I still had not worked out exactly what that meant.

I earned my Master Trainer qualification in 2014 and began turning years of interest in training into something I could use to help other people. At the same time, I was still going out, partying and figuring myself out. The qualification mattered, but I was not yet ready to treat fitness as my full career.

Training stayed consistent even when my career direction did not. Tracking my own progress taught me that meaningful change comes from understanding the starting point, applying structure and staying honest about what is working. I coached in commercial gyms, including Virgin Active, worked privately and offered mobile personal training alongside other jobs.

I joined a creative business as a project manager in Birmingham. We worked on weddings, venue photography and documentary-style shoots, and one opportunity took the work to Hong Kong. It was exciting, demanding and full of lessons about people, pressure and making an idea happen outside a gym.

I experimented with small side projects, including vinyl cutting, while moving through warehouse work, office roles, weekend takeaway shifts and personal training on the side. None of it became the final answer, but it taught me to be resourceful and showed me exactly what it feels like when work leaves little room for yourself.

In 2018, I worked as a fitness coach at Virgin Active. It gave me a proper look inside a large commercial gym: how the team worked together, how staff relationships shaped the environment and how the business operated beyond the gym floor. I gained practical insight into working with members and colleagues inside a bigger organisation, and it helped shape how I think about service, standards and people.

The pandemic brought a massive change to the fitness industry and put my coaching career on hold. On 17 April 2021, my son Ren arrived and my priorities shifted overnight. With fitness work uncertain, I moved through warehouse jobs to provide for my family and keep life moving. It was not the career direction I had imagined, but it was what survival and responsibility required at the time.

From September 2023 until June 2026, I worked at Cosworth. Being inside a large, highly organised engineering company opened my eyes to the standards, systems and teamwork behind high-performance engines. It gave me a rare look into the automotive world and the level of detail involved in building for some of the most demanding cars. It was a fascinating career path to experience, great fun to be part of and a chapter I will never forget.

My son Ren arrived in 2021, followed by my daughter Vivian in 2026. Watching those years pass so quickly changed the question from ‘What could I do one day?’ to ‘What am I choosing now?’ I wanted work that could grow with our family, not a life built entirely around the next shift.