She Was Here

I originally started this blog in the summer of 2020 to be a digital diary of my adventures as an English teacher in South Korea. My first ever post, I feel, set the tone not just for this blog but my life. While I ended up taking my job here in the states instead, Korea was never truly off the table. Just delayed. Now that my contractually obligated three month sabbatical is fast approaching, I’m ecstatic to announce that I will be spending it in Seoul! Let’s think of this post as an update to my original announcement of going to Korea.

Instead of teaching English to children (which I still think would have been a fun experience), I will be attending Seoul National University’s LEI or Language Education Institute to learn the Korean language for the winter semester. I’m especially ecstatic because I’ve been considering Seoul National for graduate school, so I’m kinda scoping it out and getting a feel for if I’d like it. Even if I do not end up attending I still plan on mastering Korean for my aspiring polyglot ego.

The way in which the events unfolded feels like fate. Even after turning down the offer of teaching in Daegu, it just never felt like the door to Korea was closed– in fact it felt like it swung open wider. I found myself starting to consider South Korea for my list of potential graduate school locations (to later narrow down by actual schools/programs) and progressively becoming more and more interested. Pretty soon I found myself down a rabbit hole on Seoul National University’s website. First for my particular department. Then I found myself at on the Language Education Institute’s page. The details a quite hazy but I consider that a testament to fate. Prior to undergrad I begged my parents to consider allowing me to attend abroad but not even the idea of much more affordable tuition could appeal to them (or close location if I went to the University of Windsor… we’re from Detroit for christ sake!) and study abroad programs for English majors at my college were limited. Truth be told I always beat myself up for not fighting harder or being more clever. Now that I have a job/career that centers on language and big window of opportunity, there was absolutely no way I could pass this opportunity up. Once I took the leap of faith of applying, everything fell right into place with very little resistance.

So why is my announcement your sign to take that sabbatical, leave of absence, trip; to apply for that job/program/scholarship/fellowship,etc.? You clicked on this post because there is an opportunity or something you want and just can’t stop thinking about staring you right in the face. You actively sought out a sign or permission to take that leap of faith because you know deep down that opportunity is not a delusion. You’ve done the research. You’ve thought long and hard about the potential obstacles and ways you could possibly overcome them. You’ve created scenario after scenario in your mind. You, like me, missed an opportunity once or twice before and now it’s come back around. At this point whatever it is you’ve been debating is BEGGING you to go for it and in these “unprecedented times” why not? I named my first ever post “Clarity in Chaos” because some things need to be completely uprooted, knocked down, destroyed,or washed away to make room for a fresh start. But that requires you to take the first step into the unknown.

All that being said, I’m considering making a series of posts about my experience with SNU’s LEI program starting with the application process. Let me know if you guys would be interested and what kind of questions you’d have about the program!