Flying From Seattle, Washington to Seoul, South Korea to Start Fulbright!

My family, the ones who will keep me going long after any journey of mine has
ended. They chilled at the airport with me until the realization of my impending
departure got to be too hard to handle emotionally. 

My precious days with my family and friends flew by irrespective of my level of preparedness.

LAST QUARTER OF COLLEGE
I had presented at the UW's 21st Annual Pacific Northwest McNair/EIP/GO-MAP Research Conference, wrapped up the CHID Focus Group I was facilitating, flown to the East Coast to participate in the 7-day Rutgers English Diversity Institute (REDI) Program, flown back to the West Coast to take my Finals after missing a whole week of classes, wrapped up my year as President of Sigma Tau Delta, attended two graduation ceremonies, applied for my visa and rushed multiple critical documents to the Institute of International Education (IIE) office in New York to finalize my Fulbright grant, written my McNair research paper, and helped inspect the rooms of over 50 of my own residents, and close down Haggett Hall for the academic year - and I had done all of this back-to-back within the span of a little under a month.

While it is not unusual to be busy during one's senior year, I had wrapped up my undergraduate career with 255 credits (75 credits over the 180 required to graduate), had done so without taking a single break from coursework for four years (including Summer Quarters), and had "finished strong" (my mantra this past quarter) with a 3.92/4.00 cumulative GPA.

Needless to say, I was fried. I looked forward to home and to being able to recuperate there without concerns over speech outlines, paper drafts, book editions, room condition reports, medical bills and post office receipts, and new officers application forms intruding upon what would amount to be an extremely short two-week summer vacation sandwiched between my graduation from college and orientation in Korea.

With Dr. Gene Kim, Associate Director of the
EIP/McNair Programat the UW. This man is one
of my best mentors and fiercest advocates at the
University. You can tell this based on his
enthusiasm as we pose with my 2013 Dean's
Medal in the Humanities.After the photo was taken, he
borrowed the medal, poppedout of the room, and, later,
was heard going from office tooffice showing it off to his
colleagues. Who can not miss this man?

MY TWO-WEEK VACATION
During this time, I managed to say goodbye to most of my academic mentors at UW, guest speak at a class on campus, do four photo shoots, enjoy a graduation picnic my family put together for me, entertain a handful of lovely friends who were able to attend said picnic, receive prayers over Skype from a couple of other friends, meet up with a few of my now-former residents who insisted on seeing me before I left, appreciate a thoughtful and tear-jerking video my sister made me for a graduation present, delightfully navigate my first-ever smart phone (another graduation present), go on a hike with and cook a Thai dinner for my best friend, learn Hangul, (the Korean alphabet), accompany my mom many times to the grocery store, and pack up a year's-worth of personal belongings in two suitcases, one carry-on, and one backpack.

HEADING TO THE AIRPORT
Before I knew it, Mama was driving me to Sea-Tac airport, Christy looked as if she was fighting back tears while at the same time trying to induce it in others, and Emily - well, Emily was actually the most well-composed out of the three of them - though she did jump and fly about inside the building, clapping her hands, and laughing gleefully at no one in particular. Her happy countenance inspired many smiles at the airport and led me to wonder whether she understood that I was going away, for a whole year.

KEEPING EMILY IN THE LOOP
I had tried to communicate this fact to her many times, saying, "Ling, Mimi going Korea! Yes! Me going! No, no, no, you can't come. Only me, okay?" She would look temporarily crest-fallen until I reminded her that she could always google "Incheon Airport." Remembering that we had a layover there a couple years ago on our way to the Philippines, she would smile and nod and confirm, "Mimi going Korea!" "Yes, yes, Mimi going Korea..." Despite how oblivious Emily seemed to my very obvious, impending departure, I know that she processes a lot more than we usually give her credit for. I know that she knows.

SAYING OUR GOODBYES
Internally and externally, I was the calmest in the family. I had forecasted earlier that there was a 70 percent chance of my mother crying, and so I steeled myself in order to avoid being swept up by the currents of her and/or Christy's emotions. I resolved, (much like I did before viewing The Passion of the Christ and Les Miserables), that I would reign in my emotions until such a time when I could express them very far away from the sight of other mortals, especially my family.

Mama and me before and after she started to realize that I was really for realz going. Everything she did for me and with
me in the three months leading up to my departure was done to show me the utmost love and care. The only reason
why I'm not also crying in the second picture is because, unlike her,I still haven't realized that I'm for realz going. 

As the eldest daughter in a family that immigrated to the U.S., I have tried to take after my mother's lead in modeling strength, especially during critical times. I figured that my presence needed to be a source of quiet strength since, according to Christy in her 20-minute video, my absence will be quite "loud."

I have so much to look forward to in this upcoming year in Korea, but I also have so much to return to back in the States.