I’m thirteen years old and in seventh grade at Boston Latin School (BLS). My twin sister and I were adopted from Seoul, South Korea when we were four months old. I currently live in Boston, Massachusetts.

I entered my essay into this competition because being a Korean adoptee is one of the most important things in my life. Some people think I’m a bit “obsessed”, but I’m proud to be from Korea so I enjoyed writing this essay. It was a completely different experience from writing an essay for school. Being a Korean is a topic I feel I write really well about especially the trip to Korea three years ago (the summer of 2004). It was the most amazing trip I’ve ever been on and really changed my life. The trip made me even more passionate about my heritage.

Through writing this essay, I realized how proud I am to be a Korean and how I want to educate other people on the beautiful culture of Korea. Even though some of my friends think I talk too much about it and get too excited whenever Korea is mentioned, I don’t care because I cherish my heritage too much to let people take it away from me.

Although I don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up, I still have many goals. One of my goals is to graduate from high school and go to college. I would also like to go back to Korea and maybe volunteer in an orphanage. Whenever it is that I return to Korea, I hope to be able to converse in Korean. Fluently if possible but if not, I would at least like to be able to carry on a conversation!

One of my interests is music. I play clarinet and but I also enjoy listening to music and singing (just for fun though, I’m not that good!). I’ve always loved reading though it’s hard to find time to read for fun because of schoolwork, but I try to whenever I get the chance! I like hanging out with my friends and being with family.

My personal heroes would have to be my parents who are always there to support me, my twin sister Nora who is my best friend in the whole world as well as my sister, and all of my friends who I couldn’t live without!

Boston, MA
Boston Latin School (7th gr)