The End...

The end of my time in Korea has come. More than ever this year has made me realize how time flies. This year has gone by faster than any other year of my life. I remember before I went to college someone told me to take it slow because those years would be the best years of my life. College flew by and yes, they were good years, but I think life gets better after college.

Coming to Korea was one of the best decisions I have made. It was an experience that challenged me, helped me to grow as a person, taught me a lot about myself and the world, and it has opened more doors for me.

Korea was a challenge because I had no idea what to expect when I came here. I knew nothing about the culture, the language, or even teaching. Living in Seoul made it easier to deal with the culture because it is such a modern city. There are parts of the city that are not modern, but for the most part it was almost like living in a North American city. The culture didn't even hit me right away either. It slowly seeped into my life. Even today, I am realizing more things about this culture. The language has been interesting. At first it seemed very difficult and almost impossible to pick up. Because Korea is trying so hard to be like the Western world though, a decent amount of people in Seoul can speak some English. There is also a lot of English on signs and places like the subway. This made my transition to living in Korea much easier. Then, slowly I began to pick up the language. Hearing the same words everyday helped me to pick them up. I still don't know the language, but I know enough to successfully get around. I can also understand a lot more of it than I can speak. Teaching has probably been the most interesting aspect of living in Korea. The majority of my day is spent at school and teaching, so of course it is a huge part of my life. Not only have I learned about teaching though, but I have learned about how the hagwon (private academy) is run, how administration works, how to deal with people, and all the nasty details in between. It all comes down to the fact that Korean hogwans are much more of a business than a school. The administration cares more about the money that parents want to pay, than the student's actual education. This is has been the most frustrating thing for me to deal with in Korea.

I have grown as a person in Korea because I have been taken out of my comfort zone. I have also had more time to myself to think and process my life up until this point. I came to Korea for adventure and to do something different. I did not come here to 'find myself' or even think about myself for that matter. Having an experience like this though, makes you think about yourself and how life has been and how you fit into the world. All of this processing came so naturally that I didn't even realize I was processing all of this until a few months ago. It has been good though because now I am more aware of things in myself that I wasn't aware of before.

Living in Korea has helped me learn things about myself. Yes, I wanted to come here for the adventure, but I also thought I would be making a difference. For all of my life I have felt a strong pull to help people, to help the world. I have always known that I was ment for bigger things. Things like working in a foreign country to help the people there. I never knew what I would be doing to help those people though. Through teaching English here, I have realized that is what I am ment to do. I am a good teacher. I love working with children and teenagers. I have the ability to relate to them and understand them. Teaching is such an important job because the generation that I am teaching is the next generation. They will grow up into the people who will lead our world. As a teacher I have such a great influence over this generation. I see this as a wonderful privelage. Teaching in Korea has been hard though, especially at a hogwan. Here I am just used for my foreign face. A foreign face brings more money into the hogwan. Other than that, they don't care about what or how I teach. This has made it hard for me to think that I am doing something good and useful for this country. It has been a good first place to teach, but I don't feel like I am making a difference in teaching here. I hope to one day be able to teach somewhere that I am truly wanted and needed.

Korea has opened doors for me because of my realization that teaching is what I want to do. Until coming here I couldn't see myself doing anything specific for the next 10 years. Now, I am for sure though, that I could teach for the next 10 years and never be bored of it. My hope is to go back to the states and get my teaching license. I don't know how long it will take, but I am ready for this next step. Once I get my teaching license I would like to teach at an inner city school. I know this will be a huge challenge, but I also know that I can make a difference doing that. Eventually I would like to try teaching in a foreign country again. This time I would like to go to a country where I am more appreciated and needed.

So this has been my year and two months in Korea. It is an experience that I will never forget. I have laughed a lot, cried a lot, moved a lot, adventured, tried new things, met new people, had new ideas, grown closer to my best friend Heather, had some weird illnesses, taught some strange children, was very angry, was very happy...and now I am finished with this chapter in my life. The next chapter awaits!