Personal Narrative Essay: Who Am I?

Object memoir

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is the hours I spent awaiting the arrival of my father to enter the driveway after weeks gone for work. After each journey, my father came back with a new treasure of a precious glass snow globe. My shelf had only been filled with the various snow globes that come from places all over the world. But the one that held the most value in my heart was my beautiful white horse snow globe that my father had brought back from his first travel. I would constantly turn the golden knob that initiated the magical sight of the gorgeous horse turning on a bronze rod, and I greatly enjoyed the elegant music that had my sister and I leaping across our room on a daily. Not only did the snowglobe

What am I? As a child, I have always grown up trying to understand the world and constantly asking myself those two questions. I spoke fluent English yet had the blood of a Korean and always felt out of place. I would also feel embarrassed around my grandparents because I never knew how to fully comprehend what they said. I rarely ate any Korean food or spoke a word of Korean other than the typical greetings. Not one person in my elementary classes was Korean for I would look around in my world and see no one that looked remotely like. This led me to believe that I wasn’t normal or didn’t belong. Never was I fully exposed to the Korean culture or fully comprehension on what it was. But as the years past, I finally had the opportunity to travel to Korea with my family. As I entered the new environment my perspective on the Korean culture had completely changed. I learned where my ancestors came from and were truly exposed to the beautiful language. Although I did not understand much of what was being said, my sister and I spent long nights in the hotel learning new words or phrases to interact and understand the people the better. I was determined and motivated because I wanted to finally feel connected to a community where I could share and express my culture without feeling out of place. Not only did my sister and I learn the language, but we felt the need to had a better understanding on the cultures in society so we made it our duty to venture to new museums or famous restaurants to become familiar with a new perspective on society. I felt like a missing piece of myself was finally put together and I was now whole. The trip had only lasted three weeks and in that time I learned and began to understand a part of myself that had been missing my entire life. I will always cherish the amazing memories made in Korea for it was the beginning of a new understanding of