A Million Miles To Love

Chapter 1

Love is a peculiar word. It is an even stranger feeling.

     What is love, really? Some people might say it is that weird feeling you get when you are standing too close to someone you are physically attracted to, while others say it's a sense of safety you may have when you are with someone. Love is so many things to so many different people if you really think about it. Some people may never know what true love is, but some will have loved many times in their lifetime.

     I've wanted to have that true love ever since I was a small child. Just like the fairy tales; you know...like Cinderella or Sling Beauty. To me, love meant a sense of happiness, and I wanted that so badly I could taste it.

     I grew up in the town of Lawton, Oklahoma. Some of the people living there call it a city, and by definition it was, but it was nothing compared to places like New York City, Seattle, or Paris. I came from a very poor family...poverty level, actually. My dad worked various different jobs most of my childhood and my young adult life, and my mom hadn't been able to hold down a steady job for a while. Even now, she struggles with employment. Good jobs were always very hard to come by in our town.

     I had 3 older siblings and one younger sister. My older siblings being one sister and two brothers. All of them probably thought I was a spoiled brat who always got my way, but I didn't always see it that way.

     I spent most of my childhood and young adult life as a squirrely little thing. I had such a small stature and frame that if a strong wind came along, I would blow away instantly!

I wasn't the greatest academically, either. I think that was partly because when you are in a low income family, you don't have all of the tools you need to excel in school. I didn't even have my own computer until I was twenty, and never had the expensive name brand clothing like a lot of the kids in school. I wanted to play on the basketball team in high school, and I also had dreams of being a cheerleader at one time. Both dreams were squashed because my dad couldn't afford to buy the uniform or shoes for either. I ended up in Drama and Art, which I grew to realize was a better fit for me anyway. I mean, I was really too short for basketball anyway, standing at all of 5'5".

     I also loved music, and I even sang in our church choir. I think I might have inherited the passion for music from my dad. He was singing all the time...that is, until he passed away in a freak car accident when I was 16. 

     Looking back, it seemed the only love I ever really knew was from my family and friends. I never really knew romantic love. I spent years hoping I would find it, and I tried so hard to find that love. There were many times that I had my heart trampled on by men...or rather boys, since they all were so immature to me now that I think about it all. I was in one narcissistic failure of a relationship after another. I felt like the cycle would never end and I would never know true happiness. One of the relationships even turned violent, and I never wanted to be in a situation like that again in the future. That one made me avoid all men for a while, in fact.

     I prayed some things are destined to change.

     Let's skip ahead to the year of 2023. I had just turned 25, and I had been working at a local school as a teaching assistant for about three years. I was able to save up a good amount of money from my job over those few years since I was single with no kids of my own, and I had few responsibilities other than renting a small apartment that had all bills paid. I didn't even have a car of my own. I mostly walked where I needed to go, or I would take the bus or Uber.  So, with the money I saved, I was planning a trip to Seoul, South Korea.

     I hadn't been anywhere other than Oklahoma my entire life so far, and wanted to see what I was missing...kind of like the old song from the 80's or 90's asking if there was life outside of the lady's dull life as a wife and mother.

     My friend from work got me hooked on Korean dramas, and I completely fell in love with the culture...or what I saw on television and youtube of their culture. I even began using some different apps on my phone and bought books to learn Korean. It was SO much more difficult than I expected it to be to learn! I studied every night after I got home from work, in hopes I would learn enough to at least get around the city and order food without looking like a complete foreigner.

     Seeing as how I work at a school, I get summers off for vacation. I planned on going in June, and I had enough money saved for a two-week stay in Seoul if I didn't go too crazy with my spending.

     It was already March, so I only had a few months to finish planning my big trip to Seoul. I had heard from a lot of people I know that staying in a hotel could get really expensive, and so it might be better to look for a room to rent from a local, which is something like a bed and breakfast.

     I took to the internet to start looking for reputable places to stay, and to ask locals for tips on visiting the Seoul area. It was then that I met who would end up being the kindest, yet probably the most mysterious person I've ever known.

     This person went by the name of Kim J. on the website for finding a bed and breakfast in Seoul (still not knowing then that Koreans used their last names first, I thought it was a girl named Kim). I had skimmed through ads for different rooms on the site, and came across one that seemed just my style, and was in my price range. It was even close to Gangnam district, so I could have easy access to some shopping and good cafés while visiting!

     So, I took the plunge and sent a message to the owner to see if the room would be available in June when I was planning on flying out to Seoul. I was shocked to get a reply within just a few minutes that said it would be available! It seemed God was shining some good luck my way for a change!

     The next day, I checked flight prices to see if there were affordable round-trip flights to Seoul. I found that there were a few economy class seats that I could afford, and they were for the dates I wanted to go on the trip. I would have absolutely loved to fly business class or first-class, but there was no way I would ever be able to pay that much money to fly. Those were only how the rich would travel, and I was anything but rich.

     I decided to contact Kim J. again first to see which flights she recommended I take, and I would also go ahead and set up renting the room for rent for the trip. Kim told me the better deal to take, and so I went onto the airline website and booked that flight. Things were starting to fall into place for my trip, and I was so excited!