As I sat in the comfy leather seats at Chicago’s O’Hare airport waiting to board my flight to Tokyo, Japan then Seoul, South Korea, I called family and a few friends of mine. Two of my friends told me they were nervous for me and were surprised at how calm I was. Up to that point, I hadn’t thought about being nervous. So I took some time to figure out why people would be nervous in my situation and why I wasn’t.
I could see why people would expect me to be nervous. I had never lived outside of the United States of America, was going to Korea and the only Korean I could speak is “Can you speak English”, and would be doing a job that I haven’t done before.
Maybe I was being irresponsible by not being nervous. But I didn’t look at it that way.
While sitting at the airport, all I concerned myself with was having good conversations with friends and family while I waited to board my flight. I didn’t speculate on how South Korea would greet me once I arrived. I didn’t even know if I would end up in South Korea as scheduled since all my flights so far has been delayed. I may have been able to spend a night in Tokyo. Then all my worrying about South Korea would have been pointless. I should’ve been worrying about Tokyo.
I did occasionally fantasize about what the airport in Seoul would look like (about the same as any other), how long it would take to get through immigration (less than 2 minutes), and if I’ll catch the right bus to end up in Daejeon (caught the express train the next morning). But I saw it as exciting and not something to worry about.
I had American dollars, American Express travelers checks, and Korean won. I figured those would get me some answers if needed. I also had the cellphone number to my recruiter who would meet me at the Daejeon bus station in case I got too confused.
But most of all, I had a 13 hour flight to Tokyo to survive before I felt I should concern myself with being nervous about teaching Korean kids two days after I land. However, with only two hours of sleep the night before, I figured the majority of the airborne hours would be spent in dreamland.
No, I was not nervous. But I do appreciate having friends who care enough to be nervous for me when I’m too in the moment to be nervous for myself. I also appreciate the friends and family who aren’t nervous for me because they believe (maybe mistakenly) I’ll be alright either way.
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