My EPIK Journey (part 2!)

This is part 2 to my EPIK Journey. If you haven’t read part 1, you can read it here so you aren’t confused!

From the time my documents were received in Korea to the time I got my placement, it was about two and a half months of waiting, and while that was the longest time that I had to wait during the EPIK process, it went by surprisingly fast. A lot of this is due to the fact that I was in the final stages of my college career and I was graduating with all my friends so there were a lot of things to take my mind off of waiting for placement. However, as soon as the start of June hit, the rush from being a college graduate had settled down and I was back to doing nothing for a few months. People in my intake group chat started to speculate on how placements were going to start soon. Since I got my documents in fairly early I figured I would be in the first bunch to get a placement. That was not the case.

What followed was a week and a half of raging anxiety and waking up at 2 AM till 4 AM to constantly refresh my email in hopes of the golden placement email. There was one day, where I moped around my apartment all day, convinced I wouldn’t get placed at all (sorry you had to deal with that Sydney). Then the night of June 17th, there was an odd peace that overcame me and I slept like a rock throughout the night. The morning of June 18th, I realized I didn’t check my email in the middle of the night so I half opened my eyes to refresh my inbox. What followed was the biggest cry of relief I’ve ever had. 

“Dear EPIK Applicant,

Congratulations! You have secured a position with EPIK for the Fall 2021 semester! You have passed the final evaluation and have been offered a position with the Jeonnam Office of Education”

I was on cloud 9 and immediately pulled up a map of South Korea because where in the heck is Jeonnam?

*Note to a curious reader: don’t google Jeonnam, you will only find a soccer team. You have to search South Jeolla province which is the same place.

I spent the entire day researching more about this province which I had next to nothing knowledge of. I created spreadsheets breaking down any info I could find on every city and county. I went through every emotion that week. The excitement in finding out my placement but the nervousness knowing that my province has some pretty rural areas. Of course, a rural Korean town is much different than the sea of endless buildings and people in Seoul. But, I have found peace in being placed wherever in my province. There will be challenges but I’m moving to a different country, why wouldn’t there be? I wish to find the beauty in wherever I am. After all, I’m not going as a tourist, I am going to be a teacher and experience Korean culture. 

June and July have been a lot of prep work for moving to Korea. Getting final documents in order, doctor checkups, teeth cleanings, etc. But more importantly, it’s been a time for me to spend some quality time with the people I love. I guess that’s what makes a big move like this so difficult. You know you are going to leave soon so you spend as much time as possible with your close ones and during that time, you start to second-guess leaving in the first place. 

I was at my friend’s place last week knowing it would be my last time there. The next day when I had to leave, I sat on their couch for as long as possible before I forced myself out the door, tears already pouring. On the drive back home I wondered “why am I choosing to create these situations where I have to say goodbye?” And I still don’t truly know the answer. Do I believe Korea is going to be some magical fairy tale land where all my problems disappear and I truly “find myself”? No. 

But if you are reading this blog to find some earth-shattering answer as to why I chose this journey, you aren’t going to find it yet. There are so many uncertainties ahead of me and I really can’t tell people why I chose this until I have actually started experiencing it. So, if I had to give my answer right now, I will say I chose EPIK because I wanted to. Above all the fear and anxiety this process has given me, I want to do it. And for me, that’s enough. 

I leave in 3 weeks and need to do many more things before then but I plan to keep up this blog quite frequently and document my time for the 5 people who will probably read this. Who knows, maybe I’ll inspire a potential scaredy-cat like me to take the leap and apply to EPIK!