In 2004, something I never expected in my life happened: I moved to America. There were only a handful of things I knew about the United States of America–North Carolina was not one of them.
I want to give you a quick rundown of how my life was in Korea. I was an emotional child. I lived in Korea for about 15 years and was bullied for a half of those years but despite the fact that I was disliked for so long, leaving where I was born was not something I imagined myself.
Luckily, getting used to this country for me was not a hard thing. I was able to learn both language and culture very quickly; on top of that, I learned how to “swing” things around. Whenever I was put on the spot but did not know what to exactly say back, I knew how to get out of that situation.
“Haters, you made me strong. I thank you for that,” I said it over and over again for my entire life.
Surprisingly, I get along very well with some of those haters; however, when I first began running back in 2022, they were haunting me. It felt like they were in my head with a 6-pack of cans of beer while watching a Netflix TV show. I was the star of that show, and the title was, “We Could Still Make Fun of You.”
People often say that the first season of any TV show is the best one to watch but I wanted to make sure that was not the case, so I pushed myself–I pushed myself to run longer and longer each week which led to my first marathon. I chose this race because due to a personal issue, my first marathon had to be a local one. Until I ran this race, Raleigh seemed so small but it felt much bigger and more interesting during my first race. It took me over 6 hours to finish, and I was injured during the race but the fact that I, somehow, finished a full-distance marathon gave me hope that I can rewrite the show in my head.
After my first marathon, I was on fire and took off to all different places–from Atlanta for a half marathon without realizing how humid and hilly the city is to Mexico City where I thought everyone in the city came out to cheer for -the runners. Both ups and downs existed in my running journey but overall, every single race I participated in was not only a joyful moment but also a learning experience.
I was listening to a song during my long run today: Boston by Augustana. The verse of the song goes like this: “You don’t know me, and you don’t even care.” People who caused my traumas never made me strong. If I can share one thing I learned from learning with everyone who is reading this: running taught me how I made myself strong.
She can be found on IG as @runmeowrun
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