A NEW BEGINNING
As our time in Korea comes to an end, we have a lot of mixed emotions. We have come to love Korea: the people, the places, the language. We have been in this small and somewhat unknown country for a year. It has been the longest job I have had and it has been our first real home as a married couple. We have made some really good friends and we have had a lot of great adventures but it is time for something new.
We are finishing out last month of teaching and we are starting to look for jobs in America. We have the problem of needing a place to live but first we need a job. Before we can get jobs, we need to know where we are going to live. Do we need to find apartments or try for a small house to rent? Should we look for a place in a smaller town or closer to a city? This will also be our first time entering the US job market. Should we look for long term careers or jobs to tide us over until one of us goes back to school? We have a lot of questions and few answers.
Even though a year does not seem like a long time, it is long enough for lots of things to change. What will life be like back in the US? We haven't driven or been to Walmart in a year.The places, the people: what will have changed? How will our families and friends have changed? Even if it doesn't seem like much, people change in some way. If nothing else, people will have different stories and new inside jokes. We will have our fair share also but it seems strange trying to return to our friends who have had a totally different year than we had. It may be strange or awkward at first, but we look forward to catching up with old friends and family.
With that said, we are terribly excited about going home to see our family and friends. We have not seen our families or friends in a year. We have a lot we want to share with them and a lot to catch up on. We both love our families greatly and it was hard to leave in the first place but now we are going back and the excitement is almost unbearable. We get to hang out with people who not only speak our language but also share a history with us. These are the people who knew what we were thinking almost the same time we did. These people have laughed with us and cried with us. This new beginning brings joy, a little uneasiness, and some anxiety but we are ready for the new adventure.
Korea, we will miss you. We will miss your strangeness and your familiarity. We will miss the parts that feel like a foreign country and the parts that feel like home. This part of our lives must come to an end. To use the already overused adage, every end is just a new beginning.
