Sarah Chase
For now Korea-based Sarah Chase, being Korean was first understood in the form of a dinner table split between American food and Korean food, taking shoes off in the house, and the smell of her grandmother’s jjigae wafting down the block on her walk home from school.
Sarah wanted more, though. She wanted to speak Korean with her relatives, craving stories to relate to, to feel more valid in her Korean identity, but found that the closer she got to the culture, the more shame she felt to not be fluent in Korean and struggled to feel deserving of living in Korea.
Upon her second move to Korea, Sarah feels much more stable and accepting of her self, with the notion that she’s just going to do her best, to witness herself with more compassion.