About Me
A little Background
Hi there!
My name is Ryan King (if you didn't know that already), and I am a junior studying mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. I grew up in Bothell, which is located around 30 minutes north of Seattle, and have lived in the same house my entire life. I have a twin brother that attends SPU, and an older sister that is a rocket scientist over in Baltimore, Maryland (my parents are so proud!). Most of my extended family lives in western Washington, and I have been blessed to have close relationships with them for the entirety of my life.
My Why
During my winter quarter at the University of Washington, I have discovered that I possess two main drivers for my actions. The first is that I simply desire to go in the direction that is giving me life, which means that it gives me joy, peace, insight or develops my thinking, my abilities, or attunes my perception. This realization has allowed me to separate my activities in to two distinct buckets. Either I gain life from actively doing that activity or I don’t gain life from it. Notice that I both neutral and negative activities are in the same bucket because I don’t value that distinction. If something isn’t adding value to my life, why do it?
The second driver is that I am consumed with determining who I am becoming. Through practice and trial and error, I have learned to distinguish my mindsets and motivations for actions either into those that develop me into the person I want to be or those that do not. To do this, I first had to clearly understand who it is that I desire to become like. For me, that person is Jesus. I have never met anyone who had a stronger mind and heart than he does. His ability for insight is incredible, and he is also the most encouraging person that I have ever met. These, along with many other characteristics of his, have caused my aim to be becoming like him.
Calling Forth Joy
When I walk through UW, I mostly observe a sea of depressed and anxious people. In contrast, I rarely have anything but a wide smile on my face. It has become my absolute delight to find joy everywhere in the day to day aspects of life. When I find it, I stop whatever I am doing and honor/recognize it. Usually this includes laughing at it too. Doing this simple act continuously empowers me to stay above the anxiety and stress that clings to most. I encourage others to do this as well.
Freedom in Thinking
I want to see things differently than everyone else around me because most people think the same boring thoughts over and over again. If someone wrongs you, the normal response is to be irritated or do them wrong back. How boring is that? My desire is to see how much I can do right to the person that did me wrong. In a different avenue, many are so supremely focused on the unimportant details like school, choosing a major, or picking a career, but none of these things will directly alter the person you are inside. You will carry each of your weaknesses and insecurities into every one of those decisions. I am focused on looking inside out rather than outside in.
Insight
I have become absolutely addicted to insight. During almost every situation, I am seeking for the larger principal that can be derived from it. I am excited to find where ideas are able to cross-pollinate one another, which I have yet to find ones that cannot. Insight is what enables me to change, and it is what allows me to guide others towards the change they desire.
Integrity
I hate acting differently in different situations. I should be the exact same person with my family, classmates, coworkers, and housemates. Anything less than that is hypocrisy. I am acutely aware of when I am hiding parts of myself from people, which is completely unacceptable to me.
Antifragility
This is an interesting word that I recently came to understand. If you have ever sent out a breakable item in the mail, you most likely wrote ‘fragile’ or ‘handle with care’ to ensure that it would not be broken. Antifragility is the exact opposite of that. Rather than the fragile object breaking with stresses or being dropped, an antifragile object actually becomes stronger from being mishandled.. In life, I enjoy being dropped or being handled poorly because I know that it is a shortcut to becoming the person I desire to be.
Core Values
Leadership Identities
Serial Learner
I have a deep abiding love for learning anything and everything. In fact, the more different something is from anything else that I have learned before, the better. I have an insatiable curiosity and desire to understand how the world really works. My goal is to expose my brain to as many different domains as I can in order to create a breeding ground for life insights and idea generation. I love trying to map all the different things that I have learned whether it be from books, life experiences, hobbies, realizations, school (though this one is certainly the least significant to me), etc, to see how they all interact and relate to each other.
Joyful Bumbler
I have several litmus tests I give myself periodically to determine how emotionally or mentally healthy I am at that moment. One of my most common ones is to check to see how excited I currently am that day or that moment. This works for me because I am most myself when I have a boundless joy in my heart and am just happily bouncing along towards some goal. Along the way, I will make many mistakes and bump into road blocks, but even those interactions are incredibly enjoyable because I just discovered a new way to accidentally hit something. I have a very childlike and carefree perspective. Fear of failure or the unknown transforms into excitement for what is coming next.
System Builder
One of my favorite parts of myself is how I think. More specifically, I love how I have developed my ability to understand the underline principles or values to the situation or person at hand. I have practiced in several different domains synthesizing large amounts of data and discovering the underlying theme or gem. Developing this skill has been a very conscious decision of mine, and it enables me to see the world differently from most around me.
Up till now, I have largely practiced this when talking with people one on one or in individual situations. Going forward, I am incredibly excited to start to apply this to systems instead of just individuals. I want to learn how to discern the fundamental habits or beliefs groups of people possess, and then alter the system they are living in to empower them to change for the better.
Future Statement
To be honest, I have absolutely no idea where I am headed. In fact, I make it a point to try to not spend time on 'where' or ''what' questions. Instead my focus is consumed on answering questions that begin with ‘why’ and 'who'. I want to grow into my leadership identities through gaining greater insight, developing my thinking, and fostering integrity. This will enable me to act with the same heart in all situations whether I be with classmates or interviewing for a job. I am completely focused on becoming a joyful freethinker that empowers others to break free of damaging mindsets and thought patterns. Whether that happens in engineering, business, or dancing is unimportant to me.