Well, if you don't already know by now, I am officially telling you. I am going to teach English in Korea for one year. Yes, Korea. So many people have asked me "Why?" and "How did you find out about it?" and such. Well, another bit of information... hold your breath.... I AM Korean. Actually, I'm American/Korean/Mexican/?????. What's with the question marks? Another tid-bit... I'm adopted. So, I don't know very much about my ethnic heritage. My adopted family is a mix of Mexican, Spanish, Irish, Pilipino and Chinese, so by general 1970's standards, I was a perfect fit for a young mixed couple looking to adopt a child. It was close enough for me, too, until I became a teenager and began to look so different from my siblings and parents.Usually, when people learn that I'm adopted the next question is "Did you ever want to find your birth-parents?" and the answer to that has changed somewhat over the years but has basically always been "Not really." Of course, when I was around 19 (and sometimes still today) I thought I might like to confirm my suspicions that mental illness was thick in my blood and when I was around 26 I started to wonder if I looked like my birth-mother. Still, the most prevalant and consistent concern for me was that I never had any real connection to or knowledge of my Korean heritage. It's easy to take for granted the fact that you belong to some culture by blood and, therefore, have lineage and ancestry and traditions. Of course, I've adopted those of my family but I have no link to the culture that contributed to my existence.A couple of years ago, my mom gave me some papers that she'd been saving in her safe deposit box that she recieved when they adopted me. There was very little information in there but I preened it for every tiny morsel of possible revelation. I learned that my birth-mother was pure Korean. She was a 19-year old college student at USC when she was pregnant with me and I was probably the product of a one-night stand. Or at least nothing serious because she made reference to the father as merely Hispanic (actually"Latin"-it was the 70's) and short. The paperwork seems to say that he does not even know I exist. I also learned that she was adopted as well.Trip out. I had no idea. As the information began to sink in and I sorted out how I felt about it, I realized that what I wanted from her I couldn't get because she was adopted too. She was also disconnected from her cultural heritage. So, I let it go and in place began dreaming of visiting and researching Korea.On a parallel path in my mind, I always wanted to spend a "Semester Abroad" or teach English for a year in some other country and really get to know it. But I used my twenties in other ways and was not organized enough to do something like take a year off of American life and ride the wind. I was otherwise occupied. I floated a lot but I didn't ride. Going back to school a couple of years ago was exhilirating, exhausting and incredibly fulfilling but I felt old at 30+ in a class full of kids who didn't know who Felix the Cat is. I had the persistent idea that I had to "catch-up" with other 30 year olds who had progressed much further than me in their financial and education aspects. I was so sure that I had "No time for nothing" as my grandmother used to say. It was a stress-producing perspective and it was all wrong. The instant I graduated and found I had more than enough time and nothing to do with it but look for a job, I realized that I had all the time in the world.While organizing my closet for the 100th time, I remembered my dream of teaching in another country. Pinnochio's song "I've got no strings, to hold me down..." rang in my head until I realized that it was true and I was fortunate. I could leave if I wanted. My only obligation is to pay bills for dinners I ate 5 years ago and I can do that from anywhere thanks to the internet. But who wants to leave their life when it's just starting a new path? Then, I realized that my path is where ever I look. If my plan is in sync with the universe, then it will reveal it's self easily and readily. I told myself that if I was going to take a year off from my career goals, it would have to be in Korea. And the next day, during my daily job search on-line, I found this ad on Craig's List:
Teach English in Korea for one year.