Freedom and Pride

Chapter 1

For the past 10 years I have been living my life independently here in the US, far away from where I grew up. I get to live here as a normal person, I get to experience the life of normal young adult and never did once I regret giving up the life I had back in Korea for my freedom.

When I was 17 years old, an incident changed my perspective in life that made me want my freedom. It made me want to be the Cassandra Park I am now and not as Park Ae-Ri, the daughter of Park Joo, one of Korea's richest businessman. Do not get me wrong, I love my dad and he is the most loving person in the world but being his only daughter has it's burden and maybe I am really not cut out for that kind of resposibility.

My mom is an American who came to Korea for work and that's where she and my dad met. Unfortunately, she died when I was still young but my dad made sure that I stayed close to my mom's family, so here I am now living with my grandma and grandpa until it's time for me to go back.

Whenever I think of that tragic day, I still get confused on what went wrong for that kind of things to happen. I cannot accept the fact that the only reason is because I am The Park Ae-Ri. All my life I never flaunt my wealth to any one. I even made sure to hide that fact and only reveal it to my closest friend, so imagine my heartbreak when my own bestfriend was the one who betrayed and used me just because of my status.

If it was up to me, I would just stay here forever and never go back but I know that it is not possible. My dad is all alone in Korea and its getting more and more hard for me when he leaves after visiting me here. I know I need to get back soon and I am dreading every moment of it not just because of the trauma but also of some people I left without even saying goodbye.