Bios

I was born in Busan, Korea in 1976. I have a brother who is 1 year older than me. When I was born, my parents had already separated. My grandmother raised me. She passed away when I was 11 years old. She was kind of a mother to me. She always supported me emotionally and physically. Her affection for me was so great. She taught me how to have relationships with family and friends. Still now, whenever I think of her, I feel very grateful towards her.

When I was in school, I was very calm and dutiful. I liked to read books. In class, I usually had a lot of questions. Because of that, when I was in middle school and high school, my friends and teachers called me ‘Miss Question’. Sometimes, my questions used to make them annoyed. It was because I was persistent about getting the correct answers. I followed the rule of the schools well and listened to what my teachers said. Actually, I was not always happy. These kinds of behaviors might have made me more rigid and inflexible.

In 1995, I entered the Busan National University. My major was Law. At that time, my father wanted me to be a lawyer. I also wanted to follow his dream. But unfortunately, as soon as I entered university, I went through “storm and stress”. One day, I suddenly became very curious about the reason of life and death, happiness, and misfortune. I was even interested in religion like Christianity. Actually, during my whole campus life, I couldn’t find out the right answers about my questions.

After graduating university, for 2 years, I prepared for the exam to get the license to be a public appraiser. But it was not easy. For the periods, I tutored middle school students and at night studied for my exam. I was so distracted. Finally, I failed the exam. At that time, I struggled with looking for a job. I had a very hard time for a while.

In 2000, I started to work as a legal assistant. My first workplace was a lawyer’s office. I prepared legal documents and researched materials to aid in the decision making process. But I was not satisfied with my job, and that made me so depressed. I wandered a lot emotionally. I used to feel vain and for a long time, I thought that I was a loser. In my 20’s, I used to feel that sustaining life was the hardest to me. I was so immature about my job and having relationships with people. I was frustrated very often and used to think that society was so unfair. There seemed to be nothing that I could achieve. I felt like walking through a tunnel.

But I didn’t give up on my life and did my best at work. In Korea, I had over 12 years career as a legal assistant. I specialized in divorce suits, corporation bankruptcies, rehabilitations and personal bankruptcies. I met over 300 clients every year and had stable relationships and established close rapports with them. Because I completed my job perfectly in most of legal processes, most of them complimented me. I always tried to communicate with them and listen to them. I had a good reputation among my coworkers. They usually thought that I was dependable, cooperative, attentive to detail and honest. I had a lot of positive feedback from clients and coworkers. I was more mature and more comfortable about myself in my 30’s than before. My life was getting much better than before.

In 2013, one day in January, I met a man. He is my husband now. When I met him for the first time, he asked me if I could leave Korea and live in Canada. At that time, somehow I thought that it might be a great opportunity. It was because I felt so exhausted and pointless at work. Anyway, I married him after 5 months. I came to Canada on April 5th, 2014 and got my PR on Dec 17th, 2015. Since I came here, I have had a lot of new experiences. I learned how to make sushi and rolls and interact with a lot of customers. And I have had relationships with a lot of people who have different nationalities. If I were in Korea, I couldn’t have even imagined them. The more I spend my time here in Canada, the more I realize how important accepting diversity is. I have become more mature and more open-minded than before.

I had a 3-year career as a sushi and maki chef in Canada. And I work at Costco now. Last year in August, I started this job. For a while, I struggled with this new atmosphere. Because this was the first time that I worked in the Canadian community, I have experienced several issues related to cultural difference and language barriers. It is not easy to overcome, but I want to continue this job until I will get used to this new culture. I think that it is such a precious opportunity in my life. I would like to interact with my coworkers and improve team working skills too. Like this, my life is getting better and better. Even thinking of my future, I feel excited. It is because I will not give up.