When my Google Timeline became the only witness I had

The quiet panic of a Tuesday night

It started on a Tuesday, or maybe it was a Wednesday, I can barely keep the days straight now. I was just heading back from a study cafe near my place, a typical night after spending hours staring at job application portals. You know how it is—those endless boxes to fill, rewriting the same resume for the tenth time, wondering if anyone on the other end is even reading these things. I was just walking toward the subway entrance, feeling that specific kind of exhaustion that comes from job hunting, when I saw someone stumble near the stairs. It was just a reflex. I reached out to steady them, maybe said something like ‘be careful’ in Korean, and kept walking. I didn’t think twice about it until the knock came later. Dealing with a police inquiry when you’re already in the middle of a job search is a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Trying to reconstruct the evening

When you’re being questioned about an incident that happened days ago, your memory feels like a frayed rope. I sat at my desk trying to remember every turn I took. Was I at the convenience store? Did I stop to check my phone? My lawyer—or rather, the person I consulted in a panic—kept asking for specifics. The police needed to know my exact movements. Honestly, if I hadn’t kept my phone’s location settings on, I would have been completely lost. I opened my Google Timeline and watched that little blue line trace my walk from the cafe to the station. It felt bizarre, looking at a digital record of a night that I had tried so hard to forget. It showed I was there for exactly twelve minutes before moving on. That digital footprint became the most important document in my life, far more valuable than any degree or certificate I’d put on my resume that week.

The disconnect between AI progress and my reality

It’s funny, I keep seeing news about AI everywhere lately. Companies like Google, Nvidia, and Amazon are pushing these massive shifts in the job market, talking about HBM roadmaps and Generative AI enterprises. Everyone is talking about how the tech industry is the only place still hiring while employment numbers in manufacturing are dipping. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to prove that I didn’t do anything wrong on a subway platform. It feels like such a strange contrast. On one hand, there’s this global race to build systems that know everything, and on the other, I’m relying on a basic location feature to show that I was just a person walking home. I spent about 15,000 won on coffee that day at the cafe, and that receipt, paired with the Google data, turned out to be my only evidence. It’s not exactly the ‘career advancement’ I imagined for myself this year.

Still waiting for the dust to settle

I’m still not sure if the matter is fully closed. They said they would look into the footage, but bureaucracy moves at its own pace. Sometimes I wake up and wonder if there’s a missing piece of evidence I forgot to mention. It’s hard to focus on interview prep when the back of your mind is constantly worried about an active investigation. I look at those articles about university-industry cooperation and AI-specialized training programs at schools like Kangwon National University, and it all feels so distant. Those students are worried about their future careers, and I’m just worried about my current one not being ruined by a misunderstanding. I haven’t heard back from the recruiters at the last three companies I applied to, and I don’t know if I should follow up or just wait. Everything feels paused, held in this weird, uncomfortable limbo where the only thing I can control is checking my email for updates that never seem to come. I guess I’ll just keep going to the library and pretend like everything is normal for now, even if it feels like I’m just waiting for the next thing to go wrong.