cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
My Expat Childhood Made Me the Traveler I Am Today - MSN
I cringe to admit I returned to South Korea for love. I can now say convincingly that it was more about a love for travel than love of a specific person, though that's not how it might have felt back then.
I grew up living in Seoul until I was nine, having moved there as a four year old from Texas for my father’s job. The day my family left, I remember sitting in my window seat on the United 747 to Los Angeles, looking at the tarmac before take off—the last physical patch of Seoul I would see for nearly 20 years. I knew that this city was an important part of my life. That I needed to hold onto it. But yet I still didn't feel particularly attached. Being an expat from such a young age—we were in the United States for two months, then New Zealand for 10 years after living in Seoul—means you develop an extraordinary ability to internalize a place without feeling an umbilical connection.
I cringe to admit I returned to South Korea for love. I can now say convincingly that it was more about a love for travel than love of a specific person, though that's not how it might have felt back then.
I grew up living in Seoul until I was nine, having moved there as a four year old from Texas for my father’s job. The day my family left, I remember sitting in my window seat on the United 747 to Los Angeles, looking at the tarmac before take off—the last physical patch of Seoul I would see for nearly 20 years. I knew that this city was an important part of my life. That I needed to hold onto it. But yet I still didn't feel particularly attached. Being an expat from such a young age—we were in the United States for two months, then New Zealand for 10 years after living in Seoul—means you develop an extraordinary ability to internalize a place without feeling an umbilical connection.