Returning to Korea as an adoptee changed the way I think about home

I have two places I call home. One is the place where I’ve lived almost my whole life. It’s where I spoke my first words and made my first friends; it’s where I live and work today. My other home is the country where I was born—a country I had no memories of, until last year.

I am just one of more than 200,000 Korean adoptees exported from South Korea since the 1950s. When I was five months old, I was flown out of South Korea and raised in a New York suburb by a white family in a largely white community.

Then, last year, I embarked on a two-week trip to South Korea primarily to attend the International Korean Adoptee Association (IKAA) gathering, held every three years. During this time, more than 550 Korean adoptees from all over the world convened at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul to attend workshops and social events.

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