Anniversary

As of this weekend, I have been in Korea for exactly one year. This is both unbelievable and completely expected. I will be here for a total of 13 months before I head back to the states. (My flight back is Saturday June 27th - I land in Atlanta at 3pm. Squeee!)

I love it here. I love the friends I've made. I love the culture. I love the freedom of travel and movement. I love that every time I leave my home, I'm reminded instantly that I live in another country. I love that I can hear foreign language every day and I understand bits and pieces of it. I love the financial independence I've found that I never truly had back home. I love the the mix of traditional and ground-breaking. I absolutely adore my kids, and my job is hardly what I would call stressful.

I don't love that I haven't hugged my parents in a year. I miss my friends back home, and it bothers me that I've missed (and will be missing) weddings, births, birthdays, retirements, graduations, anniversaries, and other important events in my family and friends' lives. It'd be nice to be able to buy a new pair of shoes without having to ship them overseas. I'd like to have predictive text on my cell phone.

So, all-in-all, it has been an AMAZING year. I would even go so far as to say probably the most memorable year I will ever have in my life. I left America in search of something. Part of that search was financial independence. And part of it was searching for something that I felt my life was missing, though I had no idea what it was. To quote a great U2 song, I still haven't found what I'm lookin' for. But I have found myself along the way. I've discovered that the world is bigger than I ever imagined, and so much smaller than we ever knew. I've learned something that my father has been telling me all my life - life is what you make it. And I know now that I can make it anything I want it to be. Now the next step is figuring out what it is that I really want.

As of right now, my main focus is paying off my massive student loans. Korea has the most lucrative set-up for ESL teachers, so it seems as though I will be staying here for a few years, until I'm able to once and for all close my loan account. The more money I'm making at my job, the sooner I can pay off my debts, so that's my main consideration in looking for a new job to come back to. Once I've paid my debts, I can start thinking about what I want to do next. I think it would be amazing to go country-hopping and spend a year in different countries around the world teaching English and exploring at the same time. But I may have different priorities or goals in a few years' time. Who knows?

For now, it's on to year number two.