As an adoptee who was born mixed Korean, the irony of our deportation to other countries – because our look did not fit in with the Korean society – is that we did not fit in with our new adopted countries either. I dove in and embraced everything my family offered me: My new home,…
I keep asking myself: Why now? What made me decide to finally go to my birth country of Korea for the first time at the age of 48 (last year)? It felt like the perfect storm of Impulse (My 2017 Year of Yes and vowing to experience everything), Vulnerability (My 2018 Year of giving in…
I tried to be present and not have too many expectations so that I would be neither let down or surprised. I still had no way to prepare for what I found when I traveled to my birth country for the first time.
How does one prepare for a full-circle trip when one doesn’t know how much baggage there will be? I’ve been fortunate enough to be granted the gift of a trip specifically catered to the mixed-Korean – often known as “Hapa” – adoptees (KADs) interested in returning to our birth-country to cement our existence in this…
My flight instinct kicked in the moment I entered the room filled with Korean faces. It’s nothing against them, and all about me, because I came from Korea too. However, I didn’t grow up in Korea, nor with Korean culture. My rational mind reminded me that, most likely, neither did they. We represent a handful…
You know that annual exam we women look forward to every year? It’s our routine hour spent lying on our back trying to make small talk with someone who knows us more intimately than our significant others desire to. Ice-cold tools send a chill of anticipation up our pelvis as we’re waiting to hear those…
Recently I got some Big News and at first curiosity bubbled over as I wondered “What now?!” Part of me itched to hurry and tell somebody because the news was too big not to share! Part of me craved to be still, sit and simmer on the information to allow me to maintain control of…
Growing up, one classmate told people he was born on a star. We laughed it off but, underneath, I empathized. I knew very little about my Korean origins, many moons from where I landed in America. Alien and alone, I tried to make sense of my differences without all the information. Being ½, Asians don’t…
As soon as I clicked the “place order” button, A warmth spilled out from my chest and enveloped me. You know that feeling when you splurge on some guilty indulgence, just what you need at that moment to make your life complete. Others question “Do you really need that?!” Doesn’t matter. You deserve to do…
I’m half-Korean. People don’t quite know where to place me. My skin is too dark to be white (You can’t spell Caucasian without Asian…), my green-ish eyes aren’t Asian, my Hungarian cooking scrambles their brains. Honestly, not being brought up Asian, and turned off by some stereotypes for Asian women, I identified with American Indians,…
Today seemingly random sequences of events caught my attention and changed my focus. I believe that nothing happens coincidentally. This year, my goal continues to ride every wave no matter how far or deep I need to swim. A thank you letter for a donation in honor of the recently passed Father John P. Daly…
I am ½ Korean, born and left in Seoul, S. Korea but saved then raised in America. Even now, my culture feels foreign to me. I don’t know my other ethnic half, so I claim Hungarian/Swedish thanks to my parents. Trader Joes creates my Korean dishes but I whip up Chicken Paprikas almost from memory….
