About

Friends call me Paw, and some even spell my name as “Pawlean“.

I’m a 28 year old human on a mission to live my healthiest, happiest and most fulfilling life. My blog is a place to document as much of that as possible.

I grew up online: updating my websites via FileZilla, tweeting since 2009 and creating communities in the “blogosphere“.

Where is home?

My accent keeps people guessing; I’ve been told I sound Aussie and American. But none of those is correct, and to be honest, I’m still trying to understand what accent I have. 🤪 You can judge for yourself by watching a video or listening to me on a podcast.

For the past 16 years, I’ve called Sheffield, a small green city in the North of England, my home. Though on the road, I sometimes tell people I’m from London or Manchester to avoid having to explain where my magical, alpaca-filled home is.

Although I call the UK my home, the Philippines will always be my home-home which explains why 90% of my conversations are about missing the sun.

Once upon a time, I solo-travelled across Europe and found another home in Greece. For over two years, I immersed myself in Greek history and culture, learned the language (yet can still only speak basics) and spent days hilariously avoiding the sun.

Η Ελλάδα μου έμαθε πώς να ζω την καλή ζωή 💜

Fun facts

• For personality nerds: I’m an ENFT-J.
• I’m over 6ft… in personality. My actual height? Classified.
• I have a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Sheffield that I don’t use beyond occasionally sharing random scientific facts.
• I have a non-identical twin who describes me as overly dramatic, but I like to remind her that this helped me get into a movie once.
• I curate Spotify playlists like this one because obviously, my life is a movie.
• I love to exercise! My current movement obsessions: boxing, spin, lifting, and yoga.
• I’m a proud tech nerd.
• I struggle with spoken languages (Tagalog, Spanish, Greek), but programming? Got those down.
• I write both privately and publicly — as you’ll see in the Vault.
• If I could sing, I’d be in musicals. Instead, I just speak at conferences.

Being a “multi-hyphenate”

The multi-hyphenate, an individual with so many skills they need multiple hyphens to list them, might seem like a revolutionary form of labour agency within a prescriptive job market.

I’m a believer that anyone can learn anything with time and determination, my story is a great example of that. I don’t hold a Computer Science degree; my interest in tech sparked as I grew up on the internet, building websites for fun.

I now work at ▲ Vercel leading community efforts.

Previously, I worked as Head of Community at Gitpod for three years (2021 – 2024), a DevOps Engineer (2021), Site Reliability Engineer, Digital Engineering Graduate (2020), and Biomedical Sciences student (2018).

Learn more about my story.

While I love my tech career, I try not to be defined solely by my job title.

I’m also a daughter of Filipino migrants, a sister (or your online sister), an explorer, a creative media enthusiast, a community builder, a speaker, a powerlifter, and a writer.

In other words, I’m a multi-hyphenate. 😁