One-Way Ticket to the Unknown

Since signing the contract to teach in South Korea on December 15, life has felt like a waiting game—with a fuzzy departure date and the goal of arriving in time to begin teaching in early March. I couldn’t schedule my flight until I had my E-2 work visa in hand. Although the requirements for securing an E-2 visa are well-defined, the actual process of obtaining one is not laid out in a simple, step-by-step way. As a result, the process required patience, time, and a lot of anxiety.

The waiting game looked like this:

• wait for FBI criminal background check results;
• wait to receive an apostille (government authenticated document) for my master’s degree diploma;
• wait for an apostille for the FBI background check;
• wait for South Korea to issue an E-2 visa number;
• wait for the Consulate General to issue the E-2 work visa.

My best guess for a departure date was mid-February. So, in the midst of all the waiting, there were other tasks to complete: break my apartment lease, cancel streaming services, cancel internet service, cancel Subscribe & Save items from Amazon, consider an international phone plan, apply for a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, cancel insurance, purge, donate, purge, donate, purge, donate—the list goes on.

After all the waiting, my visa finally arrived on February 14, and it was time to kick it into high gear: pack suitcases, move packed boxes into a closet at my ex-husband’s house, sell my bed, sell my TV stand, temporarily store other for-sale furniture in my ex-husband’s garage, clean the apartment, sell the vehicle, turn in the apartment keys…oh yeah, book my flight to Korea!

Finally, my flight is booked for Thursday, February 19 at 7:45 a.m., Denver time.

In the final hours before my departure, I am filled with both excitement and nervousness. As I enter this next chapter of my life, I realize that this will be the first truly “non-traditional” thing I have ever done. The previous chapters of my life have felt fairly traditional—predictable and on-script. It began with growing up in a traditional family with my parents, my sister, and my brother. I attended public schools and graduated with honors from high school. I went away to college for four years. I fell in love and entered into a long-term relationship, which eventually turned into marriage once same-sex marriage was legalized. I worked as a software engineer and later as a high school math teacher. I moved from Virginia to Colorado. I got divorced.

But this next chapter feels entirely unpredictable. I feel unprepared to experience living abroad—but how do you truly prepare for that? In this chapter, I get to be the main character. I get to make decisions without considering the opinion of a partner. I have the opportunity to reinvent myself. I have the chance to write my own script. There is no predetermined course of events. Life is unpredictable and full of opportunity—a chance to live outside my comfort zone.

While I feel unsure about what lies ahead, I have made a promise to myself: this year in Korea will be a year of “yes.” Anytime someone invites me to something, I will say yes. That is how I will get the most out of this experience. Yes, yes, yes.

In the meantime, it’s back to waiting—waiting to board the plane and travel across the world with Monkey George in tow.