SF to Korea

Wow. Back in the writing game. It’s certainly been a while. 

 

A lot has changed over the past year and a half. I graduated college. I moved to San Francisco. I started a full-time job. 

 

I also left that job. I moved out of San Francisco. And here I am teaching English in South Korea.

 

At just 23 years old, it seems a little early for me to be having a midlife crisis. Regardless, my life today is a complete 180 from what it was 12 months ago. I made the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, and now I’m experiencing the results of that decision. 

 

When I started my full-time finance job in August of 2018, I fully expected to be working in that space long-term. It was the perfect set-up for me. Great role, exactly what I studied for, in an awesome city on the west coast. I was fully prepared to sink my teeth into California life and to work my way up in the finance world. On paper, I had achieved everything I had been working towards. Honestly, what more could I want?

 

Well, something kept tugging at me as I fully immersed myself in my promising young career. A desire to see the world while I was young and COULD do it. The more I settled in, the more I wanted to break out. The passion I have for travel, new cultures, and languages was pulling me in a completely different direction than the one I was headed. 

 

Initially, I had attributed many of these emotions to the dramatic life changes I was experiencing. New city (where I knew NOBODY), new job (where I knew NOTHING), and new life on the west coast, away from everything I knew. No more classes, no more semesters, and no more curriculum. No longer was my future determined by a course grade or what a recruiter thought of me. The tables had turned, and it was up to me to decide what I really wanted to do. 

 

While working through these emotions, I settled in to San Francisco. After a tough first few months, things had started to look up for me. I had built a great group of friends, I was improving at work, and SF (not “San Fran,” I learned the hard way) had become my home. Still, this nagging feeling grew stronger and stronger by the day. I wanted to be out “there” as opposed to “here”. I suppose I was feeling some version of wanderlust that wouldn’t be satisfied by a 2-week trip to the Bahamas. 

 

I remember the day my mindset switched from “what if?” to “how?” when considering ways I could travel long-term in my early twenties. After deciding against the debt load of an international MBA, I wondered “how could I MAKE money while traveling?”.

 

This question took me back to the idea I had of teaching English abroad, something I had considered as a post-grad option during my junior year of college. After some research, I realized this was possible, and that South Korea offered the highest pay with the lowest cost of living. Done deal, considering it’s tough to so much as break even when teaching in many countries. The more I researched Korean culture, the more I was into the idea of experiencing it first hand. While preparing for this move, I was doing all the work “just in case” I decided to leave my job and teach abroad. Throughout the process, the plan was still to stay the course and continue to follow the “right path” I had worked so hard to land on.

 

Fast forward to now. Clearly, the needle tipped in the other direction at one point or another, and I decided to leave my job to come teach English in South Korea. And after one month in, I am grateful that I made that decision. Not because my life here is perfect or because I’m living the dream. No, the first few weeks have actually been quite frustrating. The language barrier is difficult to navigate, I have no teaching experience, and I live so far from a grocery store that I have to take a cab every time I go. I know nobody, nor can I communicate with anybody. The 13-hour time difference means I can’t speak with my family as often. My sink clogged up, and while attempting to solve that problem, my toilet clogged up. Through a series of events I won’t dive into right now, I more or less flooded my entire kitchen. No, I’m not living some fantasy. However, it is those struggles that make traveling and living abroad so special. These challenges have already forced me to grow in my short time here. I’m learning the basics of Korean. I am discovering how to wing it as a teacher. And I bought a sick moped from a U.S. soldier stationed at the nearby Camp Humphreys. 

 

But life here isn’t perfect and it won’t be. And the challenges I will face and the steps I’ll take to overcome them are going to be rewarding and straight up fun. From struggles as small as the flooded kitchen situation to the big ones, such as my overwhelming feeling of isolation, this is exactly what I signed up for. Because each of these hurdles leads to something positive on the other side. Whether it’s the smiles on my students’ faces, the thrill of correctly using a new Korean phrase, or just finally unclogging both my drain and my toilet, it all balances out. 

 

That nagging that I felt for a while is no longer wishing to be “out there” because I am “there”. Now, that energy takes its form in trying to navigate this crazy situation I’ve thrown myself into. And to me, that’s what makes life so exciting. 

 

Before I get too “Eat. Pray. Love” on you, I’ll close with a quote from Helen Keller: 

 

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

 

I’m on my adventure, and I can’t wait to share it with you.