- My name is Esther Hye Seung Jung,
and I was born in Seoul, Korea
on December 23rd, 1996.
So I am 23 years old.
When I was two years old my parents decided
to immigrate to the States.
So I lived in San Francisco for a little bit
and then we moved down more south to Los Angeles.
I lived in a suburb community called Arcadia
and I have an older sister,
and like two wonderful parents.
Yeah and I lived there most of my life until
my parents decided to actually move suddenly
to Arizona when I was in second grade.
Growing up in Arcadia everyone looked like me,
but then when I moved to Phoenix, Arizona,
no one looked like me.
And it's crazy cause like,
I think people underestimate like your memories
or your experiences as a child.
But when I was seven I remember going to class
and even throughout the months like
I became very much aware and conscious of my features.
And I think that's a kind of a sensitive topic
for a lot of like women
or like Korean American women or Korean.
It just, yeah, I became very aware of my nose
and my eyes and my skin tone and my hair.
I, there was this specific memory I remember.
It was picture day in third grade.
And my parents like dressed me up in
like the best dress I had from Old Navy.
And I went in to get a picture,
I was in line with all the other students.
And for some reason I started looking at all of my peers
and like their eye size.
And I was like, 'Whoa everyone's eyes are like the size
of a quarter.'
And like, for me, I was just thinking, I was like
'I wonder like how big my eyes are', cause like
that was a comment that I frequently like was asked.
And I remember coming home that day
and I took a physical quarter
and I compared it with my eye and I switched it.
And so it was just like the
so the coin was facing downwards and I compared it
and I was just like, for me, that was like, wow
like, I am very different.
I think living in Arizona kind of exposed
just the reality that like, not everyone looks like me.
And like I recognize that Arcadia was a bubble
or Southern California is a bubble.
For me, I realized like I definitely
need to take ownership of my identity.
I felt that when I was like in fourth or fifth grade
where I feel like I know I'm different
but like I wanna be okay with that.
Like, I don't wanna feel like
I need to feel ashamed or guilty.
And I wanna be proud of my roots
because like my dad would always say like
you're Korean first and then you're American.
That's why people say Korean American.
And I was like, okay, sure, but.
I never wanted to feel embarrassed about being Korean.
And I think from then on
like in high school and when I went to college
I definitely kind of struggled with that
I confronted I guess my Korean American identity again
when I studied abroad in Kenya.
The reason why I moved to D.C. was because I wanted to be,
I wanted to come out of the Asian bubble
and that was really great.
And I felt like, oh, wow, like I'm growing
and I was experiencing all these different things.
And I wanted to step out of something completely
out of my comfort zone and study abroad in Kenya.
And I definitely felt so like vulnerable
and raw about like my Asian-ness
and my Korean-ness 'cause like that's the first thing
that like people pick up on.
I think when I went to study abroad I realized that like,
no matter where you grow up or like what ethnicity
or nationality you are, like everyone struggles with
like the same thing.
Everyone wants to feel like accepted and loved
and like just kind of wanna pursue success and achievement.
And family's always important.
Like food's also really important.
When I really got to experience other parts of the world
or even in D.C. where a lot of women
and children are not afforded the same opportunity,
I definitely feel for them, like,
I really wanna empower women and children
to kind of find their own passion, whatever it may be.
When I was in Kenya I met a lot of really strong women
who started off their own business or, you know,
they were educated when like their families told them
they couldn't and just kind of pioneering their own life.
If I can, I wanna be in an organization, I work for
a company that provides the same opportunity for people.
So my parents in Korea they actually were both
in the banking industry.
And so my mom kind of worked
with like more of the international accounts I guess,
and my dad worked for more like their domestic accounts,
but when the IMF crisis hit in '97 in Korea,
that definitely affected their work.
That's when my parents thought seriously
like we have to get out of Korea.
I think for my parents working in the banking industry
and then coming to the States was definitely
a huge adjustment 'cause like all,
a lot of immigrant parents, I think they take on
a lot of odd jobs to pay off the bills.
And so like my parents worked
at supermarkets at one point, the post office or like
Korean-owned like fashion stores.
We had cleaners at one point, yeah.
So, yeah, I remember growing up,
early in the morning my parents would wake me up
and they'll take me to the cleaners,
like before I went to school.
So for awhile, I think my dad was actually dealing
with a lot of unemployment.
It wasn't very consistent
like he wasn't consistently working.
And so my mom had to take on all the roles
and she's a very small, petite woman.
And so I think when I think about my mom she
definitely is very resilient
and she embodies a lot of characteristics that I value.
My mom is like, everything that I hope I can be.
I know I can't be as great as my mom
but that's always something me and my sister talk about.
And I think especially the Korean word like "eomma"
I think it encompasses so many like meanings
and I think a lot of people can relate on that,
especially if they grew up in an immigrant household
just the level of just resilience
and just perseverance that mothers kind of take on.
And it's crazy.
I think it's kind of funny, but kind of like, whoa
when like my mom used to sometimes say like, you know
"When I became a mother, I'm not a woman.
I'm a mother and that comes first."
And I think that statement kind of rings
in a lot of different ways in my life.
And so I'm really grateful for my parents
and they're not perfect people.
No one's perfect.
But as just individuals and as people
I really respect my parents.
My dad says this a lot.
It's like, oh, like we moved to the States together
and we're gonna go through everything together.
And I think that was true because I remember a group
of friends like a year ago, they asked me to kind
of share my testimony.
And so when I did, I didn't realize how much of
like family was such a big part of my life.
And they were like, wow, like when you guys go
through things or when you, Esther, when you go
through something, it seems like your mom, your dad
and your sister go through the same struggles as you.
And I didn't realize that until they pointed it out.
And so even with our immigration story or like moving
to Arizona or even when I moved to D.C. for college
like our family almost like went through it all together.
So I am really grateful that like my immigrant story,
my Korean American story is not just
like an individual experience, but like I definitely
could not have done it without my parents and my sister.
My name is Esther Hye Seung Jung,
and this is my Korean American story.