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My First Quarter of Life in 3 Minutes

Janet Tseng
3 min readNov 12, 2024

Oh hey there, yeah, you! I’m Janet, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.

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Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai — July 27, 2024

I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, in the ‘90s — probably a place you may not have heard of, or perhaps you might confuse it with Thailand.

I started learning classical piano when I was three and a half (I don’t remember how that happened — my mom probably learned more than I did at the time!). I almost pursued a professional music path until I realized I wasn’t “talented” enough, and my family didn’t have the resources to support that choice.

So, I gave up and endured three miserable years at one of the top high schools in Taipei. Afterward, I studied economics at university, although I had no idea what I wanted to do. I simply crossed out all the departments I was 300% sure I wouldn’t graduate from, and my score happened to land on economics at that school.

After 12 years of not knowing what I wanted to do, I headed to Paris, France, with a working holiday visa after graduating. It was August 2019. I brought €1,000 and two suitcases, hopped on a one-way flight, and stayed for seven months. Well, seven months because — like everyone knows — 2020 changed everything. I even experienced the very first (and strictest) “confinement” (lockdown) in Paris. I…

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Janet Tseng
Janet Tseng

Written by Janet Tseng

Traveler, dreamer, and life enthusiast—the girl next door with a passion for writing and sharing, who lives with warmth and an open mind.

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