1988 and the 38th Parallel

For me, 1988 was a significant year. It was probably one of the most purposeful of my early adult life. 1988 was the year that I graduated from high school, the year that I went to college and the year that I returned to my motherland since I left almost 18 years earlier. I had no idea how meaningful and poignant this trip to Korea would be.

In June of 1988, I had the fortunate opportunity to go to Korea with other young adults from across the U.S. who were also Korean adoptees. We had all grown up outside of Korea and most of us knew little about the language, culture and people. For many of us, being Korean was having a Korean face and that was about the extent of it. In my graduating high school class, I believe that I was the only student of Korean descent out of a class that was a little less than 300 students. I didn't think about it much then, but I wasn't exactly a deep thinker either. Being one of the few Asians in my class proved to be a benefit 20 years later. Most people recognized me at a class reunion event.

I was not aware of it at the time, but I probably learned more about myself from living and traveling with other adoptees than I did from the actual tours of palaces, museums, etc.... By any means, I am not minimizing the value and historical lesson of visiting the cultural points of interest, however, there was a distinct benefit of meeting others who shared a similar background.

Fast forward to fall of 2007, my husband and I attended an annual picnic that is hosted by my adoption agency. Not only is this something that I like to attend every year, but it is also an event that I think that our daughter will enjoy. She is also an adoptee from the same agency in Korea.

Anyway, we met and talked with other families and eventually got into a conversation with another Korean adoptee who appeared to be my age. As our conversation progressed, we discovered that that we were on the same motherland tour in 1988. This might not seem like such a big deal. But, Debbie did not grow up in the midwest and moved to the area only a few years ago. It has been fun to reconnect with her and to get to know her family.

Adopting Mia, attending our agency picnics and seeing Debbie could not have been more obvious signs that the outline of this blog has already been done for me. I will re-trace the motherland tour of 1988. Since the purpose of this blog is to promote Korea and encourage travel to the Land of the Morning Calm, I think that my trip will be a good start. I will begin with 6/14/88 and end with 6/27/88.

June 14, 1988

My flight to Korea started early in the morning. I flew Northwest Airlines. Surprisingly, all connecting flights were on time. I flew from KC to Minneapolis, then to Seattle and finally to Seoul. I think that there were only 4 of us who flew out of Kansas City. I was the only one from the metropolitan area as the others came from places such as Oklahoma, central Missouri, etc... At each airport, we met other adoptees who would also be going to Korea. At the airport in Seattle, all of us came together and it was quite unbelievable.