In this talk, Wen Shuang shares how “Curiosity”, “Open-Mindedness”, “Persistence”, “Happiness”, and “Health” guided her journey of traversing through life. Shuang Wen (or 温爽 in Chinese) is a historian of modern China and the Arab world. Before joining NYU Shanghai, Prof. Wen held fellowships at the National University of Singapore and New York University Abu Dhabi. As a native Mandarin speaker, she received intensive Arabic-language training from Cairo and Damascus. Before switching her career to academia, Shuang was a broadcast journalist for Phoenix Satellite Television InfoNews Channel in Hong Kong (香港鳳凰衛視資訊台, 2003–2006), covering major breaking news events from the Middle East, and English-Mandarin-Cantonese simultaneous interpreter for live news coverage. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx