Why I'm Moving To South Korea

First of all, you should know that I seriously debated about whether I should explain why I'm off to South Korea.   I mean, you've probably heard it all before.  Not from me specifically, but from all the other thousands of unsatisfied twenty-something bloggers out there who have meticulously documented their feelings (oh the feels!) and frustrations about not knowing about what they want in life and trying to live up to people's expectations and standards etc.  You also probably don't need another rendition of "I'm Living My Life My Way", "Chase Your Dreams" or "You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don't Take" - those songs are so overplayed.

But in the end I decided that I would.  Because there was once a time when I was the one looking for inspiration from those unsatisfied twenty-something bloggers.  When I was the one looking up all the inspirational quotes (still do, tbh) and mentally preparing myself for the journey ahead.  When I was the one who needed that extra push from people I had never even met to finally take that step and 'step into the unknown'.

For people who want the TL;DR version, here it is: I am a cliche Asian millenial.

For people who enjoy essays, read on.


So I guess this is it! I've made it Facebook and and Instagram official - I am moving to South Korea to teach English for a year.  While people who know me well might not see this as a huge surprise, I have to admit that it is slightly surreal that I even made this decision.  It's been almost eight years in the making.

Almost three and a half years ago, armed with a law degree and a journalism degree, I graduated from university unsure of who or what I wanted to be.  I didn't know what career to pursue or if I even wanted to be either a lawyer or a journalist. Yes, I know, it's terribly cliche. We should play a drinking game where you drink (you can drink anything, doesn't have to be alcohol) everytime I write something the thousand other unsatisfied twenty-something bloggers have written.  You should keep close to the toilet.

Anyway, the only thing I knew for certain was that, as much as I loved my friends and my family, I needed to leave my home town, Adelaide.  Sorry Grandma. Sorry Mum and Dad.  Sorry to all those at my home church.  It definitely wasn't you, it was all me.  I just knew that I would never be content with staying there knowing that there was so much more on offer elsewhere.  I wanted to explore the world.  To expand my horizons.  To spread my wings and learn how to fly, as Miss Clarkson aptly put it.

And so I came to Sydney to complete my certificate to practice law, all the while hoping that I would find a job and move here.  I didn't really tell anyone of my plans (again, sorry Mum and Dad and Grandma and to all those at church) but it was something I had been foreseeing for some time. And although it wasn't how I had hoped it would turn out, I succeeded in my plans and moved here two weeks after finishing my certificate.  There was no goodbye party, no public announcement of my departure - just a quick trip home to fill my suitcases with as much as possible and back to the world's 10th most liveable city (as of 2017) to start my journey as a solicitor.

I'd been working in Sydney for around two years when I started feeling the itch again.  At first it didn't make much sense - I had a good job with people I really liked working with, had found a great church family, met some really cool people over Instagram, was playing basketball three times as week...why give all of this up? But as I thought more about it, I realised that there was a deep, suppressed longing to go exploring further.  Not just interstate.  It was time to go global.

During late high school and all through university, I had developed a taste for the Korean entertainment world.  I devoured k-dramas, kpop (mainly SHINee) and anything Korea-related, especially the food.  This is not a proud moment, but I even stayed up until 6AM the morning of my English mock exam watching Boys Before Flowers.  Sorry Mum and Dad, again.  I did ace that exam though. Anyway, I also ended up going to Seoul for six months as an exchange student in my third year at uni where I had one of the best six months of my life.  So naturally, when I decided to go global, I went for Korea.

I made the decision to apply for teaching at the start of this year after quite a bit of umming and aahing. Ever since I felt that first itch, I had started to re-evaluate my life: What am I doing? Why am I doing this?  Am I doing only doing this out of (Asian) pride and grit?  Do I even like my job?  Does this make me happy? It honestly felt like I had clung onto being a lawyer only because I thought it was what I wanted, it was what my parents wanted and it was a 'good job'.  I basically went through a quarter-life crisis, if you will.

Even though the answer wasn't 100% clear (to be honest, it still isn't) I realised that staying in the same spot, in the same job, in the same city etc would not give me a better perspective.  Since I had always wanted to go back to Korea, I started researching ways on how exactly to do that.  Teaching English turned out to be the best option - you have a steady job for the year, are provided with free accommodation and you get the opportunity to make an impact on these student's education.  As someone who adores kids and loves teaching Sunday School, this was perfect.

I was very lucky that my friends and more importantly, my parents (my fellow Asians, you know why I italicised that word) understood where I was coming from and why I needed to do this.  I'll admit, there were so many times when even though there was nothing but support and encouragement coming externally, I struggled with this decision internally.  Questions like 'Is this the right thing to do?' 'Am I being selfish?' 'What if I don't like it?' 'Am I wasting all that time I spent in law school and being a lawyer?' constantly haunted me.  In the end though, it came down to deciding what I would regret more - to go and find out what it would be like or to stay and struggle with my quarter-life crisis some more?

So I chose to go.