If you’ve found yourself here; first off, welcome, and secondly, thanks for taking the time to check out my page! Whether you are here for personal or professional reasons, I’d like to tell you my story so that you can feel that you know me at least a little bit. I tend to be a rambler but I’ll do my darndest to keep this short, sweet, and to the point.
I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and wear my Texan native badge proudly. I love that state will all my heart but after living there for 18 years it was time for me to spread my wings and fly a little further north. I went to The University of Oklahoma where I volunteered with my sorority and worked in various on-campus jobs. That school was my whole world for those four years and looking back I can confidently say I made the most of it. I worked hard, had fun, and made amazing memories with incredible people. In addition to my sorority, I also was a member of PRSSA and Lindsey + Asp, a study-run creative agency. At the agency, I led a research project where we worked alongside the U.S. Navy to analyze the communication practices of 5 different aircraft carriers and their PAOs (public affairs officers). By far it was the most interesting and exciting project I’ve ever had the privilege to work on.
After graduation, I got a job that took me back to Texas all the way down to Houston. I was starting over again in a new place where I knew no one after 4 years of living somewhere comfortable where my friends were just a few minutes away. It was intimidating but I learned so much from this leap of faith and was able to really get to know myself as a person while I tried to stand on my own two feet as a full-fledged adult.
I grew up with dogs and we always had somewhere between 2 and 4 dogs depending on if my grandparents visited. When I moved into my Houston apartment, I knew something was missing. At the time, the architecture firm I worked for volunteered and donated to BARC, an animal shelter. I went one Friday after work just to look around and tried to convince myself that I would not walk out with a pet. That failed massively after I fell in love with my little Shepard mix, Hera. She became part of my life the next day and I have never regretted it for a minute.
Houston also brought me together with my now husband, Dalton. We met through mutual friends who I knew from college and he knew from work. Our ability to banter meant there was never a dull moment. We dated for about a year before he was told to apply to jobs overseas and just months after applying, he was moved to a job that would take him across the ocean to the small sultanate of Brunei Darussalam. The country is under Sharia law which meant in order to move together we had to get married. So four months before the move date we got married, I quit my job, we sold our cars, rented out the house, and moved. It was by far the biggest leap of faith I’ve ever taken and it’s led to quite the adventure for us.
We were only in Brunei for a few months before COVID hit. While this is not how we planned our Southeast Asia experience going, the silver lining was that it gave me the opportunity to focus on how I wanted to find a path forward professionally. I was volunteering with Shell to run their ex-patriate support network’s website and while it was great it wasn’t as fulfilling as a job. I started freelancing and rediscovered my passion for PR and specifically writing. While I want to continue volunteering with this support network where ever we go next, I am so happy that I’ve been able to continue my professional growth through freelancing.
When I’m not working or volunteering, I hang out with my two dogs and two cats, working out or traveling. Being on this side of the world has opened a lot of travel opportunities to us but with COVID we spent the first 2.5 years of our 4-year assignment not being able to explore. Now that the pandemic has slowed, we are making the most of our ability to travel. I don’t know where the next few years of life will take me, but if the experiences I’ve had so far are any indication of what is to come, it’s going to be exciting, to say the least.
Savannah Jung 