Hi, what country did you come from?

I was born in South Korea.

Which city?

I was born in a small town called Jeomchon. And my parents lived with me in Seoul until we immigrated to the States.

Oh, okay. When was this?

In 2002.

And how old were you?

I was around five.

And where do you currently live, right now?

I live in New York City. And then before this – well, my parents live in Arizona now. And when we first came to the States, we moved to Tallahassee in Florida.

So can you describe your background or like your circumstances that led you to come to U.S.?

Yeah, so after my parents got married, my dad was planning to do his Ph.D. And I guess the options were to go to Japan or the U.S. And then my mom just suggested that they look at the world a little larger and come to the U.S. instead of Japan just to try it out, even though she didn't really speak English. And so, my dad was taking English lessons and then teaching at a school, and then we immigrated to the U.S. for him to do his Ph.D.

And then we weren't planning to stay in the U.S. as far as I know. They wanted to go back to Korea after. But I think that after he finished his degree, they fought to stay in the U.S. Just like education opportunities for me, and growing up as a girl, I think they were worried about me. So they decided to stay. And he was able to get a job in Wisconsin, as well. So he's teaching in Wisconsin. We lived in very small towns, or I guess cities, that didn't have a lot of Asian people or Korean people when we came.

I see. I know you were five years old, but do you remember anything from your first few days in the U.S. when you arrived?

I mean, I can remember that we spent a lot of time in church. So my parents would always take us to church. That was how we were able to meet other Korean people. So we spent a lot of time there and a lot of community events. And I remember going to preschool and there weren't any other Asian kids. Oh, wait, not preschool. Elementary school. And there weren't many Asian kids there. So. But I don't know if I registered that when I was younger.

Yeah, and any first impressions of the US when you first arrived?

Any first impressions? I think that everything was just very different. Because I knew we were in a new place, I just accepted that nothing I knew would be similar to what I'd come from.

But I remember because my parents were still relatively new to the country. They always loved to tell this story of how they went to Pizza Hut or something, and they asked for a pepperoni pizza. But they didn't, I guess, the worker, didn't know what they were saying. So they came home and they found a pepper, like a green pepper pizza. But they didn't know to go back and ask for a new one.

And so there are a lot of small mistakes, I guess, here and there that kind of defined our early days, after immigrating to the US. Yeah. And I think that all throughout childhood, I kind of felt like, inevitably that we were outsiders. I mean, maybe because we lived in more white-dominated areas, commonly white areas. Yeah.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about your first days in the U.S.?

I wouldn't say this is exactly a first day memory, but I remember when we were getting our green cards my parents took me out of school and we went to the immigration office. And I guess the official definition for people who come from other countries, they define them “alien”. And I remember when I was younger, I was like, “Oh, am I defined as an alien?” And that just means like “outsider”, but when I was younger, I felt very much like a foreign person, because I saw that word attached to what I was apparently in the country. So I remember sitting in the office and it was just very stark and then seeing that word associated with me. So I think that's sticks with me still.

Okay, that's it. Thanks for sharing your first day with us today.

Yeah. Thank you for including me.

Thank you.