When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me. - Erma Bombeck
Friday, November 1, 2013 (DAY 606)
Even prior to leaving the States I had several friends that were my age that were very curious as to what I would do if I were to return to the States and in need of a job. I told them even at tat time that I felt good about my position in life, if you had to equate it to that, since I felt as though I had a career resume of someone in their late 30s or even older–almost 12 years continuous employment with the same company (HDNet, which is now AXS.tv) in broadcast television–but as the same time I also felt that with this great journey I never knew where life may take me or lead me. I also felt that, and told my friend, if I were to return to the States and be in a job interview situation I know the first question would be regarding the potential gap in my work history. I told him that regardless if I were to get the job that I would most likely be the most memorable candidate that they interviewed for that position based upon what I was up to for the past x amount of years traveling round the world. I realized this when I began telling complete strangers about what I was preparing to do, such as my doctor, dentist, even random strangers out having drinks with friends before I left. And, every time people were very curious and sat and talked with me for a minimum of 30-minutes, which surprised me. Well now I feel as though I’ve changed from that anxious, scared, sort of uncertain individual that left Colorado on a one-way flight to Belize and have become more of an experienced backpacker and traveler. One night while sitting around talking at a hostel in Mancora, Peru with the typical group of backpackers from all over the world. We began a discussion of what skills backpacking particularly could be transferred to say a more corporate or professional career, this is just a brief list of what we came up with:
Even prior to leaving the States I had several friends that were my age that were very curious as to what I would do if I were to return to the States and in need of a job. I told them even at tat time that I felt good about my position in life, if you had to equate it to that, since I felt as though I had a career resume of someone in their late 30s or even older–almost 12 years continuous employment with the same company (HDNet, which is now AXS.tv) in broadcast television–but as the same time I also felt that with this great journey I never knew where life may take me or lead me. I also felt that, and told my friend, if I were to return to the States and be in a job interview situation I know the first question would be regarding the potential gap in my work history. I told him that regardless if I were to get the job that I would most likely be the most memorable candidate that they interviewed for that position based upon what I was up to for the past x amount of years traveling round the world. I realized this when I began telling complete strangers about what I was preparing to do, such as my doctor, dentist, even random strangers out having drinks with friends before I left. And, every time people were very curious and sat and talked with me for a minimum of 30-minutes, which surprised me. Well now I feel as though I’ve changed from that anxious, scared, sort of uncertain individual that left Colorado on a one-way flight to Belize and have become more of an experienced backpacker and traveler. One night while sitting around talking at a hostel in Mancora, Peru with the typical group of backpackers from all over the world. We began a discussion of what skills backpacking particularly could be transferred to say a more corporate or professional career, this is just a brief list of what we came up with:
1. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
When you find yourself (especially as a solo backpacker) thrown in the middle of a new city or town it’s sink or swim friends. You have a variety of issues to deal with and this will test much of your skills in a matter of minutes. Everything from navigating to your destination, currency calculations, the obvious language, cultural, and custom differences to learn, and plenty of others that randomly occur.
2. BUDGETING:
Again this can be an ambiguous situation since each backpacker has a different daily budget, amount saved, and duration of their travels. Since I am backpacking without a time limitation and without an endless trustfund full of excess cash, I’ve learned to do everything I can to save money. Often one of the easiest is walking as opposed to taking buses or taxis. Since one of my largest advantages is time, I don’t mind walking 30-minutes versus taking a 5-minute taxi ride that could cost $5, because that $5 could be dinner and even breakfast the next day. Plus I feel that you get a better idea of a place by hitting the pavement, sidewalks or dirt roads. I’ve always said that if I were a project manager and given a specific budget to get a job done, I feel as though not only could I get the job completed on time (obviously depending on the scale and how many people are involved) but I could also get this project done within budget if not under budget just because I have learned how to budget incredibly well. And, as an example when I had my career life in the States I never balanced my checkbook.
3. SOCIAL SKILLS:
Once again traveling solo this forces you to become more social and improve your communication skills immensely.
4. GLOBAL NETWORKING:
This is something that many companies would consider to be highly valuable. Since I have been backpacking for almost 2-years I have made close to 800 new friends (as I’m a nerd and keep this stat) with friends on every continent (minus Antarctica, I’ve yet to befriend a polar bear) and with these new friends their professions run the gamut from bartenders to doctors, lawyers, engineers, construction workers, teachers, etc etc etc. As the old saying goes, often it’s not what you know, but who you know. And I feel like I know A LOT of people.
5. SELF-CONFIDENCE:
This continually is a building process, and let me say you will have many days or nights that you may spend alone and this does take a bit of a toll at times, but through this as well as the very social times, the self-confidence you build is another excellent skill that can easily be transferred to a professional career.
When you find yourself (especially as a solo backpacker) thrown in the middle of a new city or town it’s sink or swim friends. You have a variety of issues to deal with and this will test much of your skills in a matter of minutes. Everything from navigating to your destination, currency calculations, the obvious language, cultural, and custom differences to learn, and plenty of others that randomly occur.
2. BUDGETING:
Again this can be an ambiguous situation since each backpacker has a different daily budget, amount saved, and duration of their travels. Since I am backpacking without a time limitation and without an endless trustfund full of excess cash, I’ve learned to do everything I can to save money. Often one of the easiest is walking as opposed to taking buses or taxis. Since one of my largest advantages is time, I don’t mind walking 30-minutes versus taking a 5-minute taxi ride that could cost $5, because that $5 could be dinner and even breakfast the next day. Plus I feel that you get a better idea of a place by hitting the pavement, sidewalks or dirt roads. I’ve always said that if I were a project manager and given a specific budget to get a job done, I feel as though not only could I get the job completed on time (obviously depending on the scale and how many people are involved) but I could also get this project done within budget if not under budget just because I have learned how to budget incredibly well. And, as an example when I had my career life in the States I never balanced my checkbook.
3. SOCIAL SKILLS:
Once again traveling solo this forces you to become more social and improve your communication skills immensely.
4. GLOBAL NETWORKING:
This is something that many companies would consider to be highly valuable. Since I have been backpacking for almost 2-years I have made close to 800 new friends (as I’m a nerd and keep this stat) with friends on every continent (minus Antarctica, I’ve yet to befriend a polar bear) and with these new friends their professions run the gamut from bartenders to doctors, lawyers, engineers, construction workers, teachers, etc etc etc. As the old saying goes, often it’s not what you know, but who you know. And I feel like I know A LOT of people.
5. SELF-CONFIDENCE:
This continually is a building process, and let me say you will have many days or nights that you may spend alone and this does take a bit of a toll at times, but through this as well as the very social times, the self-confidence you build is another excellent skill that can easily be transferred to a professional career.
6. MORE INNOVATIVE:
I suppose this may fall under the category of problem solving skills, but I’ve certainly learned to be more innovative whether that means repairing gear on the road or talking business ideas with others, which I really enjoy doing for those that know me.
7. ORGANIZATION:
While there is the freestyle living that is associated with backpacking, you do become a bit more organized, whether that’s taking advantage of a good hostel to do some hand washing of clothing, balancing your time (research days, activity days, volunteering, looking for potential paid freelance work, etc).
8. ENTREPRENEUR:
I have certainly become more of an entrepreneur with having more free time, thinking of new and interesting things that may equate in to a business idea or model.
9. PATIENCE:
You will be tried over and over with dealing with a variety of situations, and you can either continue to get upset over a situation that you cannot control or go with the flow and look for the positive side of life. I know that when I was in the States I was still quite organized but I also had a limited amount of patience, whether that was with things at work or even with friends during social situations. Now I feel that I’ve definitely become more relaxed and patient with people and circumstances.
10. COMPASSIONATE:
My level of compassion has certainly grown after seeing and experiencing some of the poorest countries in the world, and I feel that this could go hand-in-hand with the level of patience and stronger communication skills I’ve gained.
I suppose this may fall under the category of problem solving skills, but I’ve certainly learned to be more innovative whether that means repairing gear on the road or talking business ideas with others, which I really enjoy doing for those that know me.
7. ORGANIZATION:
While there is the freestyle living that is associated with backpacking, you do become a bit more organized, whether that’s taking advantage of a good hostel to do some hand washing of clothing, balancing your time (research days, activity days, volunteering, looking for potential paid freelance work, etc).
8. ENTREPRENEUR:
I have certainly become more of an entrepreneur with having more free time, thinking of new and interesting things that may equate in to a business idea or model.
9. PATIENCE:
You will be tried over and over with dealing with a variety of situations, and you can either continue to get upset over a situation that you cannot control or go with the flow and look for the positive side of life. I know that when I was in the States I was still quite organized but I also had a limited amount of patience, whether that was with things at work or even with friends during social situations. Now I feel that I’ve definitely become more relaxed and patient with people and circumstances.
10. COMPASSIONATE:
My level of compassion has certainly grown after seeing and experiencing some of the poorest countries in the world, and I feel that this could go hand-in-hand with the level of patience and stronger communication skills I’ve gained.
MY RTW PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
Last night was a bit of a wrestless night’s sleep since we have several pesky mosquitos in the house that are a constant annoyance–buzzing directly around your ear–it seems exactly at the moment you’ve just fallen asleep. In spite of this, I have a bit of a chance to sleep in since my birth mom is not arriving in Seoul until12:30pm so I’m able to try and sleep in a bit. Wanting to be at Eastern a bit early I arrive there at 12pm, and unfortunately there was a miscommunication or she arrived early as she was there at 11:20am. Feeling bad, I apologize, but she shrugs this off as she is just excited to see me again. Our translator for today in Seoul and will also be accompany us tomorrow to Yeosu is a wonderful woman, Soon-Young, who saw the posting for volunteer translators for Eastern and this is her first translating experience for an adoptee reunion. Even though she feels her English is not very good, I assure her that it is very good and that we are very thankful she is spending her time to assist us. When I first walk through the double doors on the third-floor and see them sitting on the couch waiting, the translator tells me that she says, “awe my baby is here.” As we walk down the staircase I am told that she does not use the word son, but baby, because she said that my mother, in her eyes, will always see me as her baby boy. Even at 31, I cannot argue this, but I continue to feel that she has missed me for so many years and has always wondered about me as I have with her. I think we are just both extremely thankful that one another is in good health and for myself personally that she is not living in poverty but has a very good job and is financially stable with an active social life.
Last night was a bit of a wrestless night’s sleep since we have several pesky mosquitos in the house that are a constant annoyance–buzzing directly around your ear–it seems exactly at the moment you’ve just fallen asleep. In spite of this, I have a bit of a chance to sleep in since my birth mom is not arriving in Seoul until12:30pm so I’m able to try and sleep in a bit. Wanting to be at Eastern a bit early I arrive there at 12pm, and unfortunately there was a miscommunication or she arrived early as she was there at 11:20am. Feeling bad, I apologize, but she shrugs this off as she is just excited to see me again. Our translator for today in Seoul and will also be accompany us tomorrow to Yeosu is a wonderful woman, Soon-Young, who saw the posting for volunteer translators for Eastern and this is her first translating experience for an adoptee reunion. Even though she feels her English is not very good, I assure her that it is very good and that we are very thankful she is spending her time to assist us. When I first walk through the double doors on the third-floor and see them sitting on the couch waiting, the translator tells me that she says, “awe my baby is here.” As we walk down the staircase I am told that she does not use the word son, but baby, because she said that my mother, in her eyes, will always see me as her baby boy. Even at 31, I cannot argue this, but I continue to feel that she has missed me for so many years and has always wondered about me as I have with her. I think we are just both extremely thankful that one another is in good health and for myself personally that she is not living in poverty but has a very good job and is financially stable with an active social life.
Wasting no time my mom has already decided that she’d like to take me to the N Seoul Tower (N서울타워). This structure was built in 1969 as a communication tower and completed in 1971, but it was not officially open to the public until 1980, 5-years after restructuring the tower with an observatory room, museum, open hall, souvenir shop, as well as other facilities. Before reaching the tower however, we took the Namsan cable car (gondola) to the base of the tower and then took more photos at the observation deck in the N Seoul Tower. The views of Seoul were incredible and this was my first chance to really see how massive the city with the world’s second largest metropolitan area with over 25.6 million residents actually is from a bird’s eye view. I also enjoyed that on each of the windows it gave the direction and distance to different cities, and, of course, when I noticed that Denver was included I couldn’t help myself.
Once we had our fill of the spectacular views we decided to walk around the base of the tower and had a chance to catch the 3pm cultural performance for a few minutes. Knowing that we were relatively pressed for time as the organizers at ESWS reminded us that we needed to be back there no later than 4:30pm, we only had some time to walk around the area and enjoy the changing leaves and take a few photos. Like son–like mother I suppose, as I soon realized that my mom has a great sense of humor, even with the language barrier. It seemed that I always saw her smiling or laughing and when it came time to take a particular photo, we couldn’t but do the very stereotypical Asian two-fingers peace sign, which I learned was not always the peace sign, but actually dates back to World War I and symbolized a V for Victory. Yeah, see you learn something new every day. After the photo was taken we both continued to laugh at how goofy we can both and this made me give her a big hug. Since we had just over an hour before we had to head back to Eastern, we decided to grab some lunch at a nearby restaurant. After being fed to the point of bursting, Korean mom style yo, I finally had to tell the translator that I seriously am going to burst if I eat another bite. She explained to me that this is very common and I’m a bit worried that I may not survive the weekend if this is how each meal is going to be.
Looking at the time, we realize that we need to grab a taxi very quickly since ESWS has their horrendously busy schedule to follow. Racing across the city, taxis in Seoul are actually relatively cheap as you can take a taxi from the North side of the city to the South for between $20-$30 if it is outside of rush hour. We arrive just a few minutes after 4:30pm and after seeing that only half of the group is there waiting I tell Ms. Kang that I need to take my mother down to the hotel that I booked for her so she can check in. I also failed to mention that over our lunch conversation we realized that Soon-Young lives 90-minutes South of Seoul by subway and since Eastern had already purchased bus tickets for us to depart on Saturday morning at 8:40am, my mother and I offered to let our volunteer translator share the hotel room if she would like. After a quick call to her husband he had no problem with this since scenario and so I didn’t feel as bad leaving them alone for the evening, since ESWS was taking just the group of adoptees to a farewell dinner with the president and director as well as providing tickets to Verdi, a classical music benefit concert that evening at 7:30pm. As soon as I ran back to Eastern after checking my mother and Soon-Young at their hotel just a few blocks away, the rush was on as we were divided up between three taxis, where each group had a volunteer with them to provide directions to the driver to the restaurant. As we entered our private dining room there was first a short speech from both Dr. Kim Jin Sook, President of ESWS, and Ms. Na, the Director of the Home to Home Program. They also asked us to take turns going around the table and describing our experience and what it felt like to both be reunited with our birth families and also how it felt to be in Korea since this was our first time, with the exception of Hanah. Once again since this is a very private topic for us, even though we felt comfortable talking with one another about things, I want to continue to maintain a high level of respect for my new wonderful friends that has brought us together through such a bonding experience unlike any I’ve had in my life. Since most of us were spending the weekend with our families this evening’s dinner was in part our farewell party before every scattered to different areas of Korea.
Once again, before we knew it, we were already running late according to Eastern’s schedule and were once again being shuffled into taxis and heading to the Yonsei University concert hall for Verdi’s 200th Birthday Celebration: Concert Opera II - La Traviata that began at 7:30pm. Almost an incredible blessing in disguise when the tickets were handed out at random to us, everyone was provided with front row seats for the concert, except for Mikey and myself. I was already running on fumes knowing that I still had to do a little laundry and pack for the weekend, plus the idea of waking up at 6am, yet again, for a full day of traveling made it harder to stay awake. Once the orchestra began it reminded me of the last time I went to the symphony, which was years ago with my friend Sarah Morgan on Valentine’s Day, where we both fell asleep, and then thinking the show was done we were driving away from the Denver Performing Arts Complex only to realize that it was the intermission. Laughing as we drove away we apparently were not cut out for a cultural evening. Tonight I’ve decided to pull the same stunt, but this time I know there is an intermission but since the concert didn’t actually begin until closer to 8pm and the first part of the program was six songs and last just over 45-minutes I knew that the second half would be closer to 90-minutes just by looking at the program. Telling Mikey that I’m ducking out and will see them back at the guesthouse, I made a beeline for the nearest subway station, which was only one stop away, then transferred to a local bus and was back at Mugunghwa House before 9pm. One of my largest concerns was transferring the day’s photos and videos off of my iPhone and onto my laptop so that there would be plenty of free memory for tomorrow. Even after getting everything ready and done, I still don’t think I got to bed until close to 1am.
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