Missing My Family...... Especially Today!

This picture was taken a day before I left to come to Korea. It was at an all-u-can eat restaurant in Oshawa, where my Sister lives.
Left to right, in a semi-circle; Jackie, Sister. Mum, Dad, Kate, Niece, Jamie, Nephew and Nuri, my Brother-in-law, who will turn 50 this June! Doesn't he look so young?

The pic above was taken at the same time in August 2004. It was to celebrate my Dad's birthday and my leaving Canada to come back to Korea again.

My Dad's not sure what day he was born, really! He said that at the time of his birth records were always kept either 2 or 3 days after you were born. He used to argue with my Nanna about it, believe it or not! He would tell her that her memory wasn't very good and how things worked back then. She would reply, " Yeh, I guess I was only there giving birth to you!"

A funny story really and quite describes my Dad's personality for you; off his head! Just joking Father!!!!!!!!

Well, today I am missing my family a little bit more than usual. I guess it is due to the fact that Easter is coming and I know that the family will all be together, without me!

I wish I could just show up for the weekend and then head back to Korea. Kind of like a fleeting visit. Sometimes that would be so nice for the soul.

In Korea, Easter passes without much fuss. Most Koreans know nothing about Easter and there are no holidays or anything of the sort to celebrate it. I, however, will make sure that this weekend a little bit of celebrating goes on, wether it is going to a nice place to eat or going to a nice pub or something.

My girlfriend doesn't work on the weekends, so it wil be nice to do something special on the weekend that doesn't cost a lot of money. I am being quite frugal now for a change, something that my family would be very proud of.

Sometimes living in another country can be very challenging. If you ride with your emotions, generally you can get through the miss the family and place times. Otherwise, my advice is to make sure that you have friends that you can hang out with that let you forget those dull times and can distract you. Or, sometimes it is just nice to be able to talk to your friends about things.

After having studied Sociology at university, I learned that not only is family important in everyone's life, it really is the core of your being; personality is formed by your family, a big chunk of it anyway, and your behaviour can be as high as 75 percent of your family's traits and role modelling. It really drives home the fact of how important a family is to each one of us.

I have a wonderful family of course, but we have had our trials and tribulations over the years. We have always been able to express our thoughts to each other; good and bad. I think the biggest strength of my family is its communication with each other and with other people too. I count myself extremely lucky to have had such good role models as Mum and Dad and of course a brilliant Sister, who I am such good friends with always.

My family doesn't have to live out of each other's backpockets, but we cherish out times together and that just about describes my family in a nutshell.

My Mum and Dad are still entitled to an opinion; they will be my Mum and Dad forever. Why would I not want their advice sometimes? They have been on this planet a lot longer than I have.

Today's society needs to realize that we need to go back to the idea of a stable family and take some time for each other no matter how busy our schedules are!

If we want to become a caring, loving society, it needs to start with the family and we need to build that belief in the younger generation, so that in the future the world can become a more loving, stable platform to build relationships with different cultures and belief systems.

I just wanted to tell you all that I think about my family all the time and am very proud of them. I miss them like crazy, but they have their lives and I have mine.

We co-exist in an era of rush rush rush, but we can still find time through the wonders of email, cell phones and the internet. Let's not forget to take time for each other, not just our families.

As my profile reads; Time costs you nothing, but is priceless to those that receive it!

Happy Easter Mum, Dad, Jackie, Nuri, Kate and Jamie. Have a nice Easter meal and lots of dessert.

I love you all.xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxxo