"Why did you change your name? And why those names?" The words drop over our dinner table full of 떡볶이 (tteokbokki, spicy stir-fried rice cakes) and 김밥 (kimbap, Korean rice rolls), homemade Korean street food. We all still just for a moment…waiting. I take a breath. My name given at birth is no longer the … Continue reading What’s in a Name?
I’m having some trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that we only have about three weeks left here. I can already feel the loss I’ll feel in returning to the States. I haven’t posted as much as I thought I would while we were here. Likely because we have been pretty busy so I'm … Continue reading Connections to My Seoul
There's a melancholy seeping out of my bones. It seems a sort of thing awakened by being here in Korea. Don't misunderstand, our time here is wonderful and will make for lasting memories. However, just because the experience is beautiful and memorable doesn't distract from or minimize the contradictions that live here. Likely one of … Continue reading Melancholy has Come to Knock
It's surreal to think we've been out of quarantine for about three weeks. It's both been forever and was just yesterday. Dragon, Monkey, and I all have things we strangely miss about our time locked in a hotel. Mostly we all miss the easy routine we fell into along with the sense of certainty of … Continue reading It’s a Beautiful Mess
A couple of posts back I talked about leaving my job. It was a tough choice to walk away from, not just the position, but from my work, a sense of comfort, societal (and my own) expectations, and unfulfilled possibilities (however slim). I’m still not certain of what direction my path is headed but I … Continue reading So What’s Next?
Content warning: suicide. I knew when I set out to write this post, it would be one of the more challenging ones. Grief. At the risk of sounding overly melodramatic, my life is punctuated by this word. In particular, my early childhood before going to live with my adoptive parents was marked by numerous losses, … Continue reading Grief is a Tricky Thing
Writing on this topic has weighed on my mind for a bit and putting all my swimming thoughts and emotions into words has felt out of reach. Becoming a mother is what drove me further on my journey so it should be expected that this process would affect my approach and experiences with parenting. Parenting … Continue reading Parenting as an Adoptee
Every time I do this, I am breaching the sacred pact of our family, our once-shared belief that my race is irrelevant in the presence of their love. But withholding hard truths and my honest opinions would also sell short the love I have for them, and they for me.Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever … Continue reading The Weight of Being Chosen
Rediscovering My Seoul 