# 2023 + EthDenver

By [Han](https://paragraph.com/@hanpham) · 2023-03-16

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Ending the year of 2022, I reflected on my personal identity. I believe the main goal is to live a life of self-discovery.

So I began to ask myself the questions:

*   What are your interests/passions?
    
*   What are your hobbies?
    
*   What do you value and what are your personal values?
    
*   What is my philosophy of life?
    
*   How do I want to lead my life?
    
*   etc …
    

I began outlining my specific future “goals-to-fail.” (or to not fail! :)))

. . .

Entering 2023, one of my goals is to **build** more 🚀

I am not usually a goal-oriented person. I don’t completely follow nor complete the detailed plans I set out for myself, whether day to day or month to month, cause I enjoy the spontaneity of life. But having a closer look at what kind of person I want to become helps ground me.

I want to lead my life as a thinker, builder, coder, architect, friend, resource.

This early March of 2023 I had the opportunity to travel to Denver for EthDenver. For some context, EthDenver is one of the largest Ethereum (blockchain) focused event dedicated to hacking and networking that happens annually around this time of year. Although it was quite difficult to manage time and school while traveling, I found it to be the most rewarding experience. For my duration there, I met new folks and we ended up hacking together. Although we were strangers when we formed the team, we spent the entire time together in Denver! This is my first time hacking seriously for a big hackathon, and I’m so glad I was with the good people to hack with.

One of the quotes I like is

> “Good friends consume together, great friends create together”

For a highlight of the things I experienced in bullet points:

*   Almost missed both of my flights (leaving and returning 😭)
    
*   Went on city adventures with UW Blockchain folks 💜
    
*   Enjoyed Shake Shack meals with friends that was entirely covered for by a blockchain protocol (Arbitrum) 🍔
    
*   Crashed on a couch for several nights at different hacker houses (nomad life hehe)
    
*   Pulled an all-nighter on the last day of hacking
    
*   Found my aspiration for ideas: discovering, sharing, building, connecting, etc. I had a glimpse of what an early start-up team looks like.
    
*   Won 2nd place for a bounty 🌟
    

We were featured on zkBob blog article!

[https://mirror.xyz/0x6132eB883e88CD4E007552b871A6444Bfc34E837/-9Lm-1FxedYajuvSS4NUZmudksrC3bOzS8JKEK8J1tc](https://mirror.xyz/0x6132eB883e88CD4E007552b871A6444Bfc34E837/-9Lm-1FxedYajuvSS4NUZmudksrC3bOzS8JKEK8J1tc)

Some pictures from Denver :)

![UW Blockchain folks <3](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6d9c5bb281934ac1ab06375d312c25d9ea7da968512f545b596ce12cca036fa2.jpg)

UW Blockchain folks <3

![From left to right: Ben, Cheryl, Michelle](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/7361f9fcd3707997a78d356a359fb9f05fc28ed1391813c9b8f61a053d647201.jpg)

From left to right: Ben, Cheryl, Michelle

![Breakfast cooked by Michelle for us to power our morning :)](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/767d630ca1f2bfb8cd731182687fc533dd51db60da489e1d6872202b89cdde87.jpg)

Breakfast cooked by Michelle for us to power our morning :)

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*Originally published on [Han](https://paragraph.com/@hanpham/2023-ethdenver)*