“I spent many years living abroad; on a sailboat in the Caribbean and with the Peace Corps in Thailand right after college. But, by great surprise, I ended up back here in Charleston, where my family is from. I’ve been renovating a house in Wagener Terrace for about five years now.

“I love that Wagener Terrace is such a diverse neighborhood. There’s so few of those around anymore. It just makes life more interesting to live in a place where you’re constantly exposed to people who are not anything like you.

“I despair a bit at the trend of homogenous developments and neighborhoods. When you are surrounded by people who are exactly like you — their lifestyle is just like your lifestyle, they’re in the same socioeconomic bracket, their skin is the same color — it’s like surrounding yourself with mirrors.

“In the Peace Corps, I taught English and agriculture to students in the Thai third form. We were in Doi Tao, which means Turtle Mountain. It’s in the Golden Triangle region, near the Burmese border. After I got out of the Peace Corps, I moved down with a friend to the U.S. Virgin Islands and lived on a 30-foot sailboat for five years. We weathered Hurricane Hugo down on St. John. Our sailboat was the only boat left floating in Coral Bay. Because we had a wind generator for power on our boat, we went from being ‘the people on the boat’ to being the only place all our friends could come for a hot shower after the hurricane.

“I came back to the States at the age of 31 having never owned a car, never signed a lease on an apartment. I went on to a master’s degree in journalism at Boston University and a Ph.D. in public health from the University of South Carolina. Today, I’m a health services researcher and freelance medical writer. I’m also a certified yoga instructor at Holy Cow.

“For the last two years, I’ve been involved with the AsiaMania film festival at South Windermere. I’ve tried to bring in various examples of films made in Asia, which are quite different than films about Asia produced in the United States. You have to take the time to peek out above the mirrors around you to get some perspective.” —as told to Jason A. Zwiker