About Patrick

I was born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1992. My dad is a professor and my mom works for the government — they both immigrated from China in the 1980’s.

Like typical Asian parents, mine expected a lot from me. They wanted me to be a hard working, multi-talented, obedient son. I embraced the multi-talented vision; hardworking and obedient, not so much. I’m too much of an individual to follow orders from other people.

And also like many other Asian children, I took piano and violin lessons while also going to Chinese school on Sundays.

I hated it.

I was too active and impatient to sit around and learn instruments and language.

My parents recognized this from an early age and put me into soccer. My mom says the first time I ever walked, I walked with a ball at my feet — born to play soccer, perhaps? I played club soccer for 10 years, starting at age 8. At age 15, I got really good. I started developing a passion for the game, everyday I dreamt about soccer. School was just a way for me to pass the time until I could go home and play. I practiced two hours daily, always dreaming that I would be the best soccer player in the world.  It wasn’t meant to be though, as I had multiple injuries and a loss of passion that derailed my career.

As I started drifting from soccer, I picked up math. And I love it. I eventually became an AIME Qualifier and my passion for math has propelled me to study Computer Science.

In 2011, I enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley. I’m now a senior majoring in Computer Science . Here is my git page(maybe you’ll find some cool projects!): https://github.com/lightninglu10

I’m much more than a math and science guy, though. When I have free time, I enjoy reading about psychology, philosophy, and just thinking about life. In an era of specialization, I’m a renaissance man.

Our current education system sucks, especially for math. In the long run, I hope to positively change education — I hope my kids won’t have to go through the same broken education system that I did.

In this blog I share my story and my thoughts with an emphasis on self improvement.

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