Surprise…I’m Home

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On Monday, December 21st, I came home for the foreseeable future. Other than my sisters, nobody in my family had any idea. I told them that the earliest I would be home was in February, but that was only if I couldn’t travel. Initially, that’s what my plan was. If it weren’t for COVID, I would have left Korea at the end of August, my family would have visited and we would have traveled around Korea and Japan, and then I would have spent months traveling Asia. COVID changed all of that, my family wasn’t coming, and I planned to stay in Korea until February, hoping that by then I could at least go to Vietnam (a country that had COVID under control). However, by July I realized that traveling wouldn’t be likely, that I wouldn’t want to travel anyway, and that I wanted to be home for Christmas. I hadn’t spent a Christmas at home in four years, and I didn’t want to spend it in Korea.

By the end of July I made the decision that I was going to leave Korea in December to be home for Christmas, and wanted it to be a surprise. After this decision, I needed to tell somebody. A week later I told my twin sister, and the following week I told my younger sister. It would have been impossible for me to keep it to myself, and I needed their help.

It was an arduous journey of deception and lies. Over the next five months my family, my grandma, and my aunts and uncles continually asked me when I was coming back to the U.S. and what my plans were. I had to believe that I was staying in Korea until February and that I was going to travel to Vietnam after. In the first week of October, I booked my flight and the questions from my family persisted. I had to convince them not to send a Christmas package, citing COVID as the reason. I told them it might not make it to Korea because of the situation in the U.S. Of course, the packages I sent home arrived in less than a week. I was told they would take a month, which would put their arrival after I arrived. Questions became hard-pressed for facts like, “when is your last day?” or “where are you going to travel?”, I’d answer with “It’s hard to say with COVID at the moment where I can go, so I’ll have to wait and see” or, “I’ll decide in January and see what the situation is like.”

Leading up to my departure there were a lot of things going on that I wanted to share with my parents, like my principal’s reaction to me leaving, selling my car, the last days at my schools, and just all the feelings and emotions that come with leaving. It was hard to keep everything in and occasionally my sisters or I would almost slip up. My younger sister asked me a week before I was due home, “are your students going to miss you?” My mom said something about getting a haircut, I responded, “why would I get a haircut when it’s going to be winter when I come home.” Saturday, December 19th (Korea) was my last day in Boseong, the town I lived in; Sunday, December 20th (Korea) I made my way to Seoul, a combined journey time of eight hours; Monday, December 21st (Korea) was my flight.

When I woke up on Monday morning, I had a text from my mom asking if we were facetiming at our normal time (Monday morning in Korea is Sunday night in the U.S and it’s the day I always facetimed with my family). To keep up appearances, I replied “yes” because it was too early for me to be at school, and I therefore couldn’t yet craft my planned lie. I arrived to the airport around 8:30am (Korea), U.S time Sunday 6:30pm, and waited until it was 8:40am (the time I’d be at school) to text the lie that my classes were changed so I couldn’t talk at our normal time. I told my sisters that if they ask why I’m not responding, tell them that my phone’s battery is messed up.

Korea’s Monday, December 21st at 10:50 am my flight took off, 13 hours later I arrived at JFK on Monday, December 21st at 10am. I texted my sisters. They timed the pickup perfectly; they had just arrived by the time I got out. In the car, we debated the best way to surprise my parents. We decided that I would ring the doorbell and they would stand behind me recording. While we were on the way, my twin texted them about lunch to make sure that they were both at home.

I was nervous. Everybody was nervous! When we arrived at our house, my heart was racing, we quietly went onto the porch, I stood close to the door so that whoever answered wouldn’t be able to see me from the windows. I rang the doorbell, I didn’t hear it, so I rang it again, I didn’t think it was working, I looked back at my sisters putting my hands up like “what do I do?” my twin sister made a knocking symbol, I knocked, but it didn’t seem loud so I used the knocker. A second later my Dad opened the door. He was shocked. His face showed a mixture of disbelief and confusion. How could I be standing in front of him? My mom wasn’t around, I thought that maybe she was in the kitchen and I wanted to get to her before she heard and got to me. Before giving my Dad any time to process it, I asked “where’s Mom?” he replied “upstairs.” Quietly as possible, we made our way upstairs, Christmas music was playing and I remember thinking “that’s good, she obviously hasn’t heard anything.” I knocked on the open door and went in. She looked at me, in her eyes I could see her brain trying to comprehend this person in front of her. It looked like her son, but it made little sense for him to be standing in front of her. He was teaching right now in Korea. After what felt like an eternity, but was only two seconds, the realization hit her. I was home.