This was taken at the Forbidden City in Beijing in May 2026. Golden roofs, a clear blue sky, and for once, no weight sitting on my chest. This is one of the happiest photos I have taken, not because of what is in the frame, but because of what it took to be standing there.

If you have read my earlier posts, you know my biggest fear these past few years was my green card. The anticipation, the ups and downs, the constant worry about getting laid off and not being able to find a new job within the time I was allowed to stay. It followed me everywhere, even on the trips that were supposed to be an escape.

In April, I finally got my green card.

The wait was crazy. The day I got notified, I was in tears. Happy tears, the kind that come from years of holding your breath. When I told my friends, I felt so loved. So many people had watched me struggle through this, and I think it was a relief for everyone around me too, not just for me. Ever since, life has been awesome.

It also meant something I had not been able to do in a long time: travel outside the country without worrying about getting back in. So the first thing I did was visit my grandparents in China, and this time I brought my girlfriend with me. This shot is from that trip.

Being in Beijing hit me in a way I did not expect. My parents came from here. Part of my family still lives here. From Beijing they moved all the way to Germany, where I spent my childhood, and then I moved to the US and fought for thirteen years to be allowed to stay. Standing there, I could see the whole path at once. It showed me how far I have come and how hard I have pushed myself to get here.

And it is not just me. My parents worked hard my whole childhood, moving across the world and raising me in a new country so I could have this chance. Standing where their story started made me appreciate them more than ever. This is theirs too.

Photography carried me through a lot of that. During the worst of the green card stretch, going out with a camera was how I got out of my own head. It made me slow down, appreciate the little things, and soak everything in. It still does.

And now it gets to be more than that. Before, I was only allowed to work the job my visa was tied to. With my green card, I can finally turn photography into a real side hustle, the portrait sessions and prints you see on this site included. For the first time, I get to follow my dreams without those limits.

The trip ended up being Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul, all in one go. I had just left my old job and was about to start a new one, so for a few weeks there was nothing to rush back for. It was an important time in my life, one of the most memorable I have had, and it taught me some of my biggest lessons.

The biggest one: have faith and believe in yourself. Control what you can. The things you cannot control, try to let go of them and keep pushing forward. Keep working hard and keep believing it will work out.

The other one took me longer to learn. Once you make it through, give yourself some grace. I spent thirteen years fighting for this, and I am learning to actually appreciate that, to be proud of myself instead of just moving on to the next thing. Standing in Beijing with my girlfriend, on the same trip where I finally got to see my grandparents again, felt like the right place to do that.