To boats worth rocking. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about my dating profile lately. Paul and Jordan have been helping me with it too—half-joking, half-serious—but I think there’s some truth in what they’ve suggested, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll actually use it.

We started with my roots. My parents are from the southern part of Vietnam, far from the city, near the border. My dad’s from Cà Mau, my mum’s from Bạc Liêu—and that, apparently, makes me a country boy. It’s funny, because I’ve never really thought about it that way, but it fits. I’m naturally shy, not the first one to speak in a room, so we landed on shy country boy as my first trait. Cute, right?

But then we dove deeper—or maybe got a little silly. Because, despite being shy, I love to stir things up. I like to rock the boat, gently at first, just to see who notices. Picture it—me, sitting in a boat with a group of people, everyone trying hard to keep their balance, nervous about tipping over. And there I am, just rocking it, ever so slightly, watching the panic set in. Then, when no one’s expecting it, I rock it harder—and everyone’s screaming, holding on for dear life—and I’m just there, laughing. So now? Now I’m the boat rocker. I proudly wear that title like a badge of honor.

It gets worse—or better, depending on how you look at it. At work, I’ve made it a habit of walking up to people with a dead-serious face and saying I’ve got bad news. I do it so often that now, whenever someone sees me approaching, they brace for impact, expecting disaster. But here’s the thing: I don’t always bring bad news. Sometimes it’s good news. Sometimes it’s solutions. But, more often than not, I just want to see their reaction. Stirring the pot, rocking the boat—it’s who I am.

So now, my dating profile reads something like this:

Shy country boy.

Boat rocker.

Bearer of bad news (but sometimes good).

It’s silly. It’s mischievous. A little chaotic. But it feels like me. It’s the kind of profile that makes someone stop, read it again, and maybe—just maybe—want to rock the boat with me, tip it over even.