Blog 1

How important is knowing where you come from when it comes to knowing who you are? This is a question that has bothered me for a long time. My dad adopted me when I was 5, and I’ve never known my birth father. I wondered if I was missing some essential knowledge about myself, but recently I’ve decided I don’t care.; I won’t let my DNA dictate who I am. I don’t think of my nationality as something I inherited through blood. Instead, I think it’s determined by how I was raised.

However, I understand why Nathan Adolfson would struggle with these issues a little differently. Because he is Korean, people viewed him differently growing up. He never fully felt like he belonged. He went to college and then Korea to become closer to a culture he could see in himself. Yet, when he finally got to Korea, the connection he wanted wasn’t there. He didn’t grow up in Korea, so he couldn’t connect with people based on his birth alone.

During his journey, though, Nathan found a group of people that he could identify with. When he met others who had been adopted from Korea and grown up feeling like outsiders, he could relate to them. In a way, this is Nathan’s nation. These people share experiences with him that no one else can understand. Shared experiences are an essential part of what makes a nation. So although Nathan and the people he met who understood him did not all live in the same place, they have a bond that makes them a strong community of their own.