January 23, 2021
A number of years ago when I was still in university, I took some time off from my studies to participate in a teaching program in South Korea. I’m grateful to be able to say that I’ve kept in touch with some of the beautiful souls I met while in Korea.
One of them is April. Originally from Missouri, April was also there to teach English at an elementary school in rural South Korea. April was placed in a small city called Naju, which was not far from my own placement. This meant that we were often able to meet up on the weekends for day trips, and sometimes attend church together on Sundays and get lunch afterwards.
After our year in Korea, we’ve intermittently kept in touch, but we haven’t had a chance to see each other since. It had also been a while since we last caught up with each other’s lives, so we decided to have a video chat one Saturday afternoon.
April currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she works as a physical therapist.
Naju living, 2014 – 2015
Whet I met April, it was her first time living in South Korea, and her first time visiting as an adult.
“I didn’t really speak Korean in the household much growing up,” says April, who gets the Korean side of her heritage from her mom. “But I knew some phrases here and there. It wasn’t as much of a culture shock [being in Korea] though, because growing up, my mom would have Korean people come and visit, and we would go to Korean events on campus. We lived near a university.
The only big culture shock was, for example, when I would see an halmunee, and she would be like, oh, what are YOU doing here, [in Korean] to me, as someone who looks white.
So there was subtle awkwardness and racism towards me sometimes as someone who is mixed. But it wasn’t as bad for me as it was for some of my students and their families who were half Korean and half Filipino. They were treated pretty poorly by people in Naju.”
April adds she is hopeful that things are slowly improving. “It’s been a little over five years, and I hear that diversity in Korea has been increasing and increasing, and I’m hopeful that people are more used to people who look different from them.”
During her time in Korea, April’s mom came to visit her and other family members there. Naju, where April lived, was actually her mom’s hometown, which made it extra special for April to be there with her mom, who hadn’t been in Korea in many years.
Back in MO with a change of plans, 2015-2019
When I left Korea in the summer of 2015 and returned to Vancouver, April had planned to stay, and attend Ewha Womans University’s language school.
“I went back home on vacation in 2015, and I was on a road trip with my family here in the States.
I was talking with my stepmom on the road. And I was like, you know, I don’t really know if being an English teacher is for me. I wasn’t really sure if living in Korea was the best for me. So I talked with her and I said, I really do enjoy teaching, and I enjoy sports as well. So she recommended me to shadow a physical therapist here in the States, because she worked in a hospital at that time. And so I shadowed at this hospital, and I actually liked it. So I ended up withdrawing from Ewha, and enrolled in classes in my hometown. I took prerequisite classes for Physical Therapy school. Then I applied for PT school and got accepted.”
After three years of Physical Therapy school and upon passing her board exam, April started practicing in July of 2020.
Being a Healthcare professional during COVID-19, 2020- Present
This meant diving straight into a global pandemic the moment she started being a healthcare professional.
A big thank-you to April and all the healthcare professionals out there who are fighting this pandemic on the front lines.
“I’m a physical therapist at a skilled nursing facility here in Nashville, Tennessee. Well, it’s not just skilled nursing. I actually work for assisted living and independent living as well. Usually I see people who are 60 plus, and I’ll see anyone from stroke patients to a hip replacement surgery, heart surgery, patients with a total knee replacement. I’ll see people who have had dizziness, and treat them for their balance and dizziness. There’s a lot of things we do in physical therapy.
Our new patients get referred from the hospital, and they go through quarantine until they have two negative COVID tests. We have to wear gowns, gloves, face masks, and a shield to see them. And we treat them in their rooms until they test negative twice. If they test positive, then they go into an isolation wing. But thankfully, we don’t have anyone who’s positive right now. We had a whole wing of positive patients all through November into the beginning of December,” says April.
“So that was kind of scary, working with COVID positive patients. But it was scary for them too, cause they weren’t sure of their outcome. And it was hard. We were like their family, because they couldn’t see their family. We weren’t allowing family members into the building, unless they were getting ready to pass. So that was really hard. We ended up losing some of our long term care residents to COVID. It was very disheartening and discouraging.”
Things are looking up
“But I’m glad that things are kind of back to normal before the outbreak,” says April. Well, normal since she started working.
“We still get COVID tests twice a week, and we got the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. All of our residents got vaccinated, as well. So I’m hopeful for the future of this pandemic.
Modern medicine has advanced so much, too. We can find antidotes, we can find vaccinations. It’s still not perfect, but there’s a lot more that we can do now, verses, even when we were kids, twenty years ago.
But it’s been hard. It’s been overwhelming and there are days where I go home and I’m just drained and I don’t want to do anything. Sometimes it’s hard to even stay hydrated. It’s hard to remember that you need a drink of water when you’re wearing a mask.
I’m thankful for all my coworkers that stuck through it, and I’m thankful that we’re doing what we can to help patients, because that’s what we signed up for. Pandemic or no pandemic, we’re trying to help people heal.”
A warm bath and a glass of wine
April has had to find ways to de-stress and take care of herself during these intense and stressful months.
“I stay sane by not overworking. And I’ve been trying to keep in touch with my family. That’s been helpful. I’ve been trying to continue going to church, online. I have my boyfriend Issac. I’ve had to pray a lot. I have been exercising a lot more. So I’ve been trying to just occupy my time and do de-stressing activities.
I got bath bombs! They smell good and they’re relaxing. There’s nothing like a warm bath and a glass of wine.”
YES! I could use a bath with a glass of wine tonight.
On COVID
“The pandemic is real. A lot of people here in Tennessee are skeptical of it, even though they see people dying. They see people wearing masks. They see all the research articles that are out there. They’ve heard Dr Fauci and politicians talk about it. And a lot of people still think it’s just a hoax. But it’s very much real, and people should take it seriously. Know that people are getting sick from the virus. People are losing their lives, too. So, the precautions we take, whether it’s wearing a mask, social distancing, staying at home, they are effective.”
At the time of writing this, April has now gotten the second dose of her vaccine, making her the first friend of mine to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. YAY!
Like April, I, too, am hopeful for the future of this health crisis, and for positive change.
April Protzman | Follow April’s food Instagram account
