About my birthday
It doesn't come up everyday, but I sometimes hear other foreigners in Korea express this feeling that their lives are on hold. The idea is that -- away from home, our friends, and our family -- we exist in a bittersweet kind of stasis. A feeling that everyone else is not just living their life without you, but making some kind of "progress" or advancing towards a goal while you're stalled out in Seoul. What that looks like exactly is different for everyone. A promotion at work? Marriage? Having another kid?
I suspect that niggling doubt has something to do with why one comes here in the first place; many of the people who come here to teach English aren't actually interested in teaching (English or otherwise) back home, wherever that is for them. They come because they think it'll be an adventure, an experience, an opportunity to travel. Or, as is the case with the new, fresh-faced 22 year old teacher at my school (ugh), they come fresh out of college because they have no idea what to do with their degree, if they can do anything with it at all.
In other words, they come explicitly seeking a gap year -- a chance to put everything on pause -- and then worry about what they'll be returning to when they're ready to hit "start". How forgiving will the job market -- or their relationships -- be?
This is not a feeling I share, not completely. I don't know if that's just because I feel my reasons for being here are less escapist (sometimes), or because I also feel acutely aware of the passage of time. Time does seem to move differently for me now that I'm here -- beyond just working around time zones for a Zoom call -- but it moves and transforms all the same. Turning 32 thousands of miles away from the people I'd normally choose to celebrate my birthday with was an unnecessary reminder of everything I lose and gain by being here.
A week or so before my birthday, I visited 경복궁 Gyeongbok Palace with a friend from work. It's super vast and I couldn't really appreciate it all in just one visit.
Spring at Gyeongbokgung.
Details.
One of the palace gates.
On my birthday weekend, some of my coworkers and I went to a baseball game at Jamsil Stadium.
The folks I see everyday at work.
Sammie and I. Fellow Taurus and my closest friend here.
Lately, the pace of things here hurries along. My birthday was just over two weeks ago and I have the as-of-yet-unanswered congratulatory emails in my inbox to prove it. Thanks, everyone, for your patience.
If you'd like to give me a little encouragement to write more -- and more often -- feel free to send a Shuttle voucher my way. I'll even take requests.
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There are a million small ways we all put our lives on hold, and you don't have to go to another country to do it.
I hope when you read this, you do one of the big or small things that matters to you, without waiting for better timing.