January 31, 2021
Back in late 2019, I was thinking a lot about places. I still do. Interviewing different individuals for this blog, I learned about little bits and pieces of life in cities and towns in far corners of the world. And in turn, I found myself reflecting about some of the places that are near and dear to my heart. And so I wrote about it.
For whatever reason, it sat as a draft for many months. And now, over a year later and in a global pandemic that has confined my life and my imagination mostly to my living room, stumbling upon what I had written then hits a different spot. And I thought I’d finally share it:
December 2019
I’m fascinated by places. Not only how different each city, town, country or region is to one another geographically and culturally, but how all these different places shape, inspire, and change us.
In each story and in every person, there’s different places melted into them. Sometimes it’s easy to tell, sometimes not so much. I love hearing people’s stories and getting to learn about the places that have had a role in their lives.
Flipping through my notes from this past year, I found that I had written about a few of the places I’ve lived in.
Here’s a version of it:
They say when you leave a place, you leave a piece of your heart with it and you take a piece of the place with you… or something like that. I don’t know if this is from some travel-themed Pinterest page or if a famous person had once said it. Someone tell me.
Gumi, South Korea
Where I spent most of my childhood. How fiercely people lived and worked to make a name for themselves, support their families, and make their loved ones proud. Whenever I find myself caught up in a spiral of millennial dissatisfaction in life or a sense of entitlement, I just need to mentally take myself back to this place and be re-grounded in the values of hard work, resilience, and humility.
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver is where as a teenager and a young adult, I started to decide what I like and what I don’t, what I am and what I’m not. It’s where I learned to celebrate every sunny day, take my space and unapologetically speak up to have my voice heard. This is where I learned to respect Mother Nature and the land I’m on, where I started to adore big fluffy dogs. It’s where I slowly turned into a yoga-going, smoothie-drinking stranger. Who would I even be if Vancouver never happened to me? It’s hard to tell.
London, UK
London will forever take me back to being twenty.
There’s something about this city. Something about catching the bus home from Trafalgar Square, getting a cider from a London pub, learning to expertly navigate around road closures and Tube service disruptions. And it will never cease to have a special place in my heart. From London, I took with me the intensity of its energy, ideas and life.
Montreal, QC
I remember very very little from my baby years in Montreal. My parents tell me that I was born on a crazy cold day in January.
Any knowledge of this city comes from spending some of my best childhood summers in Montreal visiting my grandparents, which made me a lifetime bagel snob. But more than that, I think it’s this city that’s created a desire in my younger self to seek out culturally diverse and vibrant environments. I loved the buzz on the metro. I loved how conversations went from English to French and then back to English and then to French. And I loved that my grandma’s grocery stops included a bagel shop, a produce store that always played South Asian music, a fish market, and a Korean store.
As a little kid who was growing up in South Korea where people not only spoke one language but where everyone seemed to have the same haircut and down to the colour of lipstick on women, I was fascinated by the cultures and languages, fashion and food that were represented in that city.
I doubt I was even remotely aware of the complexity that is the Quebec identity, culture and politics then. But looking back, my summers in Montreal have taught me that no one place is ever perfect, but where there’s exchange of ideas, cultures and languages, there’s also a special kind of energy.
All of this is to say, who knows where life takes me next?
And who knows which new places will be added to this list in the years to come?
But, home for me is where it smells like the ocean. Home for me is where I hear the familiar singing voices of my parents. It’s where my friends are chatting late into the night. Home for me is where I can find the most comforting of hugs.
Now, tell me about you and your places. I told you I’m fascinated by them.
☾ Coincidentally, in my most recent interview with Aurora Cominetti, we talked about moving in and out of places and what that does to one’s heart and soul. Or maybe it’s not a coincidence at all, and that’s what prompted me to revisit this piece. 🧡
