My mom recently visited me here in Korea for a few weeks. My mother was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1951 and had the opportunity to move to the United States in 1980. Since that time, she started a new life in the states, met my father, and raised her family there. My mom has never been back to her home country outside of one short trip many years ago but she wasn’t able to explore Korea at that time. So what made this recent trip significant is this is the first time she has been back to explore her home country in almost 40 years!

Korea is known to be one of the most fastest developing countries, having suffered the devastations and ruins of war in the 1950s to becoming the economic and global powerhouse just 6 decades later. My mom grew up very poor in her early life, but her family was able to stabilize themselves as she was in her teens. At this point in the 60s and 70s, Korea began to rebuild itself into what would be the beginnings of what we see Korea as today.

With my mom visiting in Korea, she experienced an overwhelming sense of shock as the Korea she remembered just 40 years ago is almost unrecognizable. We were able to explore her home city of Seoul and walk the same streets she remembers walking when she was younger.

In this video, I was able to ask her about her experiences being back, how she felt, and capture the emotions that she experienced during her special trip here.