"Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else."

How long does it take to live in a place before it becomes your home? I've been here only a little over two months, yet it is sort of starting to feel like home to me. I have started a life here, if only for a short period of time. The word "nomad" comes from the Greek word nomas: roaming in search of pasture. Truly, isn't that what we all are doing? We may not all be travelers, but everyone is roaming, searching for something. The most common question I've gotten since I've been here is this: "Why did you choose to come to Korea?" I often find myself fumbling for an answer, trying to explain the intricacies of my situation, and how the school was ideal for my major, and how I received a scholarship, and so on, and as I explain...I find myself coming to a conclusion; I needed to come here, not because of my major, not because of job opportunities, not because of scholarships (although these were wonderful incentives & reasons!) the bottom line is that something deep, down inside of me compelled me to go. It took me a year from the time I made the decision to come to Korea, to the act of actually getting in the plane...but in a way, it has taken my entire life. The wanderlust was set in from a very early age, I knew that I needed to go. I needed to explore, I needed to feed my soul with the wonderment of the world. My reasons for coming here cannot be summed up as simply as wrapping a brown paper package and tying it with a string....the reasons are continually growing, expanding in my mind, and though I am not completely sure what impact this single journey will have on my life, or how it will affect me, but I am assured every single day of the necessity and significance coming here has for me, and I have become even more convinced that this journey is only the beginning. 

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives....All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers."

-Henry David Thoreau