1.
When I was very young, there was one day where I stayed late after school to finish some homework, and I spent time at a friends' house. This was the first time I had ever done this; staying out and on my own was very exciting. I simply couldn't wait to get back home and tell my parents all about how well I had done at school that day. However, when my friends' parents dropped me off at my parents' house, I walked up to the door to find the lights off. I thought this was strange, as it wasn't bedtime for them yet. Looking back, my friend's mother had assumed I was okay and drove off. I turned back to the door to see nothing, nowhere. I knocked on the door, not thing anything of it. They had to be there; they were always there.
A few minutes of silence later, I began to realize that something was wrong. Had something happened to them? How was I supposed to get inside? I didn't know any of my neighbors well enough to ask, and my parents told me not to talk to strangers. I walked all the way around the house; none of the doors were unlocked, so I couldn't get in. I even tried climbing up one of the windows, but I fell and bruised my knee. I cried for what felt like hours at the side of the house, thinking that my parents were never coming back.
Eventually, a car pulled up, and a shape that looked like my mother was silhouetted by the headlights. "Are you all right, darling?" she said as I ran up to hug her. As it turned out, my parents left for dinner since they knew I'd be away; they had no idea I had gotten back so early, and that my friend's mother had left me there. I didn't even care at that point; I was just glad to be home.
2.
One of the most vivid memories of my childhood was attending the SeolNal, or Korean New Year, ceremonies with my family. In the Korean New Year, we typically go to our familial homes for three days and perform rituals - my parents tended to wear their regular clothes, but I remember my grandparents always wearing hanbok, the traditional clothing for SeolNal. While there, we would sit around and eat tteokguk, which is kind of a soup with slices of rice cake. According to my grandmother, I was not actually a year older until I finished eating my tteokguk.
After that, I would have to perform a sebae for my parents and grandparents in order to pay homage to them. Wearing a hanbok, I would take one big bow in front of them, and say, "saehae bok mani badeusayo"; this means basically "have a Happy New Year." I would get a reward of some money after that, and my grandparents would offer deokdam, or words of wisdom. Once that was over we would play a game of yunori, which is a Korean board game. My grandfather would also take me out to the yard and we would play with rectangular kites we called yeonnalligi; those were some of my most favorite memories. Even though I do not live in South Korea currently, those years where I had a SeolNal were some of the best of my life, and I would always look forward to the Korean New Year as a time of thanksgiving and having quality moments with my family.
