My Journey
- Bernard Kim
- Korea-United States
- KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
- 16
My journey began with my dad, John B. W. Kim, he was born in Seoul, Korea in 1959. He was brought up in a rich-class environment for his dad, my grandfather, was rich in land. My dad's parent's had a divorce when he was very young. The only thing he remembers is they went fishing together. This one memory my dad has, is of his dad (my grandfather) laughing in a boat with a fishing pole between his hand, catching fish with him. My dad lived with his father in Seoul until the age of 16. After that my dad wanted to help his mother, he felt wrong not being with the woman who gave him birth and took care of him when she was in labor. So he lied to his dad saying if he could get some money to go live in California and start living by himself.
Then with the money he had he bought a plane ticket and traveled to Hawaii in 1975, in search for my grandma. He reached the beautiful islands of Hawaii. My dad knew where my grandmother lived because for a while now they had been sending letters to each other. She was staying at the Honolulu islands. In my dad's teenage years he delivered newspapers and was a dishwasher at restaurants, to earn money. At the end of the week when he received his paycheck, he would give every last bit to my grandma. By 1982, my dad had moved to California in search of a new life, for he was done helping his mother. This is when he met my mother and I was born on June 2, 1991.
The second part of my journey begins with my step-mother Kyung Sook Jang, she was born in Seoul, Korea in 1955. She also had a son in Korea. Who today, is my brother. My mother lived in Korea for 30 years and came to Los Angeles in 1990. She felt like she had to leave Korea because at a young age my brother's father died of cancer. My mother felt like that it was her fault that her child had to go through, students making fun of him at school because he didn't have a dad. To escape this pain she came here to the United States, by plane, with my brother. Then after a couple of years, even though she wasn't ready to be married again, something made her want to marry my father. I didn't have a mother so I called this woman (my mother) "mom." With my brother it was the other way around, he didn't have a dad, so he called my dad, "dad." Not out of love for each other, but for the love of the children my parents decided it would be best to marry.
I on the other hand, was born and raised in the United States. I was born in Los Angeles, California. I lived there with my mother, dad, and sister. I don’t remember much of my childhood but one day my sister tells me I won’t be able to see my mom anymore and I cried and cried. My sister told me this, I was just too young to comprehend what was going on when my parents had decided to have a divorce, I was only 2 ½. Then that is when my father met my step-mother who is my loving mother today. I lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and moved to La Crescenta and lived here ever since.