Korea Chronicles: A Leap Into The Unknown

by Simran Rawat (India)

A leap into the unknown Korea South

I’ve been to several countries for a plethora of purposes but my South Korea trip was the first one where I knew not of where I was going or for what. I received a call one Thursday afternoon, telling me I had been shortlisted for a government exchange I had applied for a few months prior. The call was vague, simply telling me I had been provisionally placed in a program. I was asked to bring a set of documents to the Ministry office the following day. I then received an email detailing my conditional selection, which asked me not to question where we were going till the visit was confirmed. Upon receiving the South Korea visa form to fill out, I knew where I was going but not much else. My friends and relatives joked that I had unwittingly been spooled into a spy mission. The entire weekend I was on tenterhooks and on Monday evening, I received my visa. On Tuesday, I was on a flight to Seoul. At that juncture, the haze had started lifting to some extent. I knew that I had to represent my nation, participate in discussions and diplomatic endeavors. I met some of the other members of the delegation and the officers accompanying us. But we were still a selection of strangers from every corner of India. We didn’t know each other or how we had all come to be there, since everyone made it through a different selection process. We embarked on our journey, clueless about each other as well as the people who would greet us on arrival. I was apprehensive about being one of only four girls in the program, with nineteen men. None of us knew each other’s backgrounds and considering that the aim was to showcase a cross section of Indian youth, we seemed to have more differences than similarities. I also seemed to be among the youngest. Yet, I forged friendships of immeasurable emotional intensity. Over the course of the next 10 days, I formed a friend group and grew so close to them that it seemed as if I had known them for a lifetime. Time and space seemed to condense and congeal. We learnt our tasks on the spot, giving presentations and holding debates as if we had been preparing for them forever. Our hosts were warm, welcoming and accommodating to the highest degree. Since I hadn’t known what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by everything. We stayed in the best of hotels, ate amazing food and saw sights the likes of which I had never imagined. Not only did we bond with each other but also with our Korean counterparts. From our translators to our guides, from Korean high school kids to our bus driver; we found much that united us despite delightful differences. As we unraveled our emotional layers, to open ourselves up to new experiences and each other; we learnt not just about family and friendship, but also about ourselves. A lot of us had been apprehensive before we embarked, many had been skeptical and some surprised. But as the trip grew to a close, we found ourselves feeling fondly about the unchartered terrain we had traversed. Food that had felt unfamiliar, now felt homely. The cold we had been unaccustomed to, now seemed standard. Faces that were once new, now felt like fixtures of our daily lives. I had leapt into the unknown, fearing falling off a cliff. But instead I had jumped into an endless ocean of opportunities. From not knowing anything when we took off to not being able to comprehend all that I had learnt in such a short time; this trip was truly a testament to travelling, and all the possibilities it encompasses. A whimsical trip thus concluded wistfully, with wishes of reunions and warm memories.