Thursday, October 2, 2008

Special Young People

Index
Soo-Yeun is my cousin’s (Moon Hi’s) daughter. She is twenty-six years old, the same age is my daughter Henna. We have bonded. The two of us have gone downtown together. I hug her like I would hug my own daughter. She has graduated from the University of Seoul. This is the university that every Korean child aspires to attend. Not every valedictorian throughout Korea who applies will be accepted. Soo-Yeun has won many awards in a school system where there may be three awards out of many thousands of students. Now she has a job that is sought by the most ambitious of men yet impossible to get. Her parents plan their whole future around her. I consider how much I wanted to achieve so much success for my parents, yet here is a person who actually did that.

I appreciate Soo-Yeun not for her many accomplishments but for her sincerity and genuineness. I told her of my daughter Henna, who has traveled and lived in Europe as an au pair and now is pursuing her college education. Soo-Yeun longed for that kind of freedom. She is bound by success and duty for the happiness of her parents, who have given up their lives for her. It is rather odd. At age fifty-three, I can relate more with her inner struggles than with my generation, my cousins, who think more like my parents did and still do.


Sung-Ho is the son of my cousin Yeon-Choon (my aunt’s second son). He has just been accepted by a prestigious school. There has been much excitement and celebration about him by the family, especially the older generation. (Amazingly, I am considered part of the older generation.) As I walk with him through downtown Seoul, he speaks to me of the government and economy of the US, South Korea, North Korea, and other parts of the world. He tells me that South Korea has grown too fast. This creates a lack of depth and of proper development of the culture. As I consider his words, I am struck by the fact that the beautiful architecture I’ve appreciated in major US cities is missing here. He tells me that he supports Barak Obama. Because he does not trust Korean journalism concerning foreign affairs, he reads The Economist, The New York Times, and other publications on the internet. He reminds me so much of my son Seth. When he learned that Seth left school for about a year to reevaluate his goals and to find a job in New York before applying to another university, Sung-Ho envied that kind of freedom which is not possible in Korean culture.

In a culture where parents boast of their children's accomplishments are supreme, my only boast is my love for my children.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello JaeHi -

It sounds like you had a wonderful trip! You'll always be glad you took the time to do that with your mother.

-- David in Chicago