I’m back in the DC area and the horizon couldn’t be wider. While my experience in Korea was filled with dramatic changes (for those who want a more intimate glimpse, check this out), I think it is too soon to see how exactly I was moved and influenced by being there for 6 months. Who knows in what ways I’ll see how the experience has changed me. But, I’m excited to find out.

Having been in Korea and exposed to life there, I have a greater appreciation for my parents – for having adopted me and giving me opportunities that are inherent in being American. I also have a deeper respect for teachers worldwide. It seriously was a taxing job, both physically and emotionally, and I cannot imagine being a teacher day-in and day-out, 365 days a year (or however many days are in a teacher’s calendar). I think I would combust if I were a teacher for-real.

I also have this renewed sense of wonder being back in the DC area. There is so much culture here, so much diversity and flavors and accents and personalities(!), it is exciting to be back where things (and people) shake and groove and create and protest and think and talk and imagine and make historical ground. And I’m back in the middle of it all.