One of the things that I am constantly doing is fighting my earliest perceptions of Korea. A part of my brain is constantly seeing it through the eyes of M*A*S*H. When I was little, we watched M*A*S*H as a family and that was how I viewed Korea for a long time. It wasn’t a bad perception. It was just a little skewed.

Now, I know that Korea has its mega metropolis areas and the rural areas – just like here in the United States. However, I still often picture a dusty rural environment first. It is amazing how hard it is for me to shake those early perceptions.

In a way, I was a little disappointed when I realized how similar the countries really were. Even after I was able to get past M*A*S*H, I had still envisioned a country where everyone wore colorful hanboks every day and there were ancient monuments on every corner. What a let down to realize how very “normal” everyone looked with their blue jeans and designer shirts. Seoul has buildings that rival any in the local cities around me.

For me, I think that there was a latent desire for my birth country to be beyond anything that I knew. I wanted it to be exotic and without equal. I don’t think that this wish is just an adopted child’s fantasy. It’s why so many children dream that they are really a prince or princess and they’ve been displaced to this land. There is a need to feel like you’re something special and believing that you’ve come from somewhere special is a first step. For those of us who are adopted from “far away lands,” we have the added bonus of knowing that we came from somewhere else. I think this is why adoptive parents have to be careful about painting Korea with too broad a brush and making sure that their children have all of the information to work with.

I am still interested in Korean culture. I am still awed by the fact that the history of the Korean nation can be traced back so much farther than the United States’ existence. Unfortunately, it’s lost that mystery that it held when I was a child. Though it’s no longer my “happily ever after” place, it is still a special place.

If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com.