Japan, Korea and America are my home countries. I am a third
generation Korean living in Japan. My mother is Korean. My father
is a naturalized American.
I was born in Japan and grew up in Korea, living there for
three years. Then I went to an international school in Japan for
eight years, from kindergarten. There I made many friends from
all over the world. The days were fun, but what I remember most
is the long way to school holding my brother's hand. When I was
in the sixth grade, I moved to America and spent one year in an
American school.
I went to a public junior high school in Japan. Of course
everybody there was Japanese, and I used my Japanese name. At the
time, I didn't want anyone to know I was a Korean.
High school was the time when I thought many things about
myself. My high school was an unusual school. It was a public
international school. I met many students there who were in the
same situation as I was, and also many Japanese students who had
experiences in foreign countries. At that time, I learned to
accept myself as I am, and to even be proud of myself. Then I
went to America for one year. There I met many people from all
over the world. It was not my first time to live in America or to
see many kinds of people, but many things shocked me and made me
think, such as nationality, race and what people really live for.
But I really wondered how people can learn to live together. We
can either help other people or ignore them.
Throughout my high school days, I was on the track and field
team. We had to practice every morning and night. I often thought
about quitting. But when I graduated from high school without
missing any practice (I even joined the track team in America), I
was satisfied. I learned how important each practice was. Also I
learned that if I gave something a lot of effort, good results
would follow. If the result was not satisfactory, my effort had
not been satisfactory, so I had to try harder. Through track, I
learned so many things, not only about practice, but about
relations between people, how we should live. Whenever there is
an obstacle, I always think about track.
Since I have understood what I am, now as I enter college I
want to think about what I can do. I want to study many things
during college. Especially I want to study about East Asia. After
I get enough knowledge about this subject, I don't know what I
can do, but I want to do something helpful for East Asia, because
my nationality is Korean, but I also share the Japanese
culture.
by Rika Lee
