It's the day before my "supposed" leaving date for South Korea. (not to mention my Birthday!!! :) I say "supposed" because although my flight was scheduled for 6:11am in the morning, the Korean consulate office is having communication problems with the Korean immigration system, thereby delaying my visa & departure...yet again. :( Nonetheless, I remain optimistic! I shall certainly be out of the States this week!
Within the past few months I've had quite a few conversations with people about my leaving for Korea. I've received a myriad of responses which unsurprisingly seem to fall into category by age. Those in my age group are normally quite excited for me and agree that it will be "way cool and I should send back gifts and are nikes cheaper over there?" (No, they aren't!) The middle aged folks- those who are around the age of my beautiful mother- assure me that it will be a "rewarding experience and be careful what you eat". Older people, however, are often sure that I am "entirely too young for the journey" and warn me that it is inevitable that i'll end up in a dark and gloomy jail cell in North Korea....& also "be careful what you eat!"
Of course, there are radical deviations to be found within my observations. One such includes a 30 something year old ex-convict whom I met at the greyhound (12 years for a murder charge) who heavily chastised my aspirations to teach english in South Korea while there are "black kids in America who need more help." His accusations included "selling my soul for the almighty dollar." Just to put it out there, this is not an not an attempt to "abandon my people" or "the cause", as he put it. I simply want to get my feet wet in the international world, build my resume, and at the same time, get that "rewarding experience" all the 30-40 year olds were talking about!
Soooo great to see your blogging about your ideas! I KNEW YOU WERE A BELIEVER!!
ReplyDeleteI'm totally excited for you of course... but I must say that ex-convict wouldn't have even understood what you meant if you told him that you were building your resume to prepare yourself for an international career so u can "help little black kids" - (he was too busy murdering people and doing time) it's clearly not your fault he missed out on grasping the importance of higher education. That is unfortunate that folks are so simple minded and don't take heed... THERE ARE beautiful sites to see across the waters- (like the wonderful picture you have of Daejeon below!)
----You are truly a person who makes me realize that there are things that I need to see across the waters like platypus. BTW Where do platypus come from? But seriously...--- I really want you to know that this is going to be a hard pill to swallow once you leave in the morning- "I be thinkin' of ways dat I can sabotage ur plans---one day I had it figured out--- and my facebook status was 'You aint goin NOWHERE' but the plan kinda crumble once I saw how happy you were about going!"
IN BEING SAID...
I am very happy that you have the opportunity to integrate with people from other cultures. I know this will be a wonderful experience that you will be able to tell my son-in-law about. I will be praying for your arrival, your stay, and your return.. IF YOU DECIDE TO RETURN. Ideally, I support you in whatever you choose to do with your life.
So much more to say but apparently someone is anxious for me to stop writing-- so um yeah I Love You and I will be continuously praying that you learn the Korean language so they won't be talkin about you behind your back!! I'll come kick their a**!!
---Dez