Vivian Chen ’20, Communication, Language, Culture & Society Taipei, Taiwan
“Guess I’m locked in here for the next two weeks,”
I thought as I rolled my luggage into my hotel room. I had just graduated in June and was embarking on what was supposed to be an exciting new phase of my life. Like many of my peers, however, my post-graduation plan was completely obliterated by Covid-19; instead of traveling across Latin America, I found myself alone in my apartment, getting rejected by company after company. When my sister got laid off around the same time, we decided to turn this into an opportunity to start over in Taiwan. There, I will help my sister build her own company – Chapter Nomad – to coach others how to travel and work remotely. Since arriving in Taipei, we have been constantly impressed by the government’s dedication to containing the virus. Right after we landed, we filled out a quarantine form, got sanitized, then took a quarantine taxi to our quarantine hotel (a two-week isolation was mandatory for travelers). Due to the rigorous safety measures, activities in Taiwan are minimally impacted by the virus. The last few months were filled with rejections, self-doubt, and uncertainties. Looking forward, I am both grateful and excited to regain a piece of normalcy and to begin my new adventure as a digital nomad. www.instagram.com/chapternomad