Personal Narrative: My Immigration To Canada

I was born on 6:50 p.m. on Tuesday, January 18th, 2000 at Samsung Jae-il Hospital in Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. I was arranged to be born on January 11, but it did not go according to the schedule. So, my mother had a cesarean section, although she wanted to give natural childbirth like my other siblings. Also, I was relatively big compared to others, 4.3kg when I was born, exceeding the average weight.

This is a note book is called “Baby notebook” and it is commonly used in Korean’s Hospital to do birth records. It was given to my mother from the Samsung Jae-il Hospital when I was born to record all the information about me, Hyun ji Kang( Korean name), to observe the growth and development, and to help check the baby’s health regularly.

This is a picture of me, sitting on my grandmother’s lap, when I was three days old at my old house at Seoul, South Korea.

This is a portion of my umbilical cord that was cut when I was born. In Korea, the obstetrician allows the parents to keep their child’s umbilical cord as a memory.

I first came to Canada just after my first birthday, but it wasn’t until in grade three, when my family immigrated and settled permanently in Canada.

It was Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada with my family, only knowing the words, “hello” and “bye”. I have lived in Burlington, Ontario since the day I have immigrated. If I did not immigrated to Canada, my life would completely have changed. I can’t imagine myself surviving in Korea’s education because in Korea, every student compete each other only to get better grades and to go to well-known universities. There is no place and time for them to enjoy their life. I am very happy that I am able to live in Canada where there is less

pressure.

This is the immigration paper that I have received from the government to identify that I am a official immigrant of Canada.

After I have immigrated to Canada, soccer was the first sport that I have encountered and I have continued playing soccer at Oakville Soccer Club for eight years. This was my first year playing soccer, inexperienced with poor soccer skills, however our green team “Grasshoppers” was able to become the champions of the 2009 Oakville cup for U9. I still cannot forget the moment and the feeling that I had when I was receiving the trophy from my coach at the podium. Also, in Korea there is not much opportunities and extracurricular activities for sports because students rather study and go to academy even late at night to get better grades at school, ignoring the physical activities that is needed for a healthy life.

This was the team photo of our green team” Grasshoppers” on the podium with our soccer trophy in our hands, not forgetting our big bright smiles. The head of the Oakville Soccer Club called on the champion team names for each age group to award the trophy for being the 1st place team in their league.

This is the close look of the trophy that I have received on the first year of my soccer life.

My grandfather had participated in the Korean civil war as a soldier when he was 20 years old. At that time of the year, there wasn’t any exact division between South and North Korea, even the 38th parallel did not exist back then. My grandfather and his brother was the only people capable in his family who could leave North Korea and come down to South Korea, due to the war being so sudden. If my grandfather did not move down to South Korea during the war, he would not have met my grandmother in South Korea and got married. Our family history would have been completely different with this single event, I might not exist right now.

This is a picture of the area called “Hyeonchungsa Shrine” in Incheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.

This specific cemetery is only for the soldiers who made a significant contribution during the Korean civil war. My grandfather's was one of the soldiers who have contributed.

This is the urn of my grandfather's place in the charnel house. It indicates that he was a war veteran and have participated in the 1951, June 25, Korean civil war.

On Tuesday, May 19th, 2015, my art piece has been selected to be displayed at the Annual Halton Secondary Art Show. There was only three grade nines form Hayden who has been displayed at the art show and I was fortunate to be one of them. I have only attended to three art museum or art shows before this event had happened. So, this was a great opportunity for me to look at other students’ work from different high schools over the Halton Secondary Schools and to study others skills to develop my art techniques further to become an architecture when I get older.

This is a picture of me standing in front of my art piece, graffiti: peace.

The picture of the closer look at my graffiti piece.

The picture of invitation that I have received to attend the art show with my family at New Street Education Centre, 3250 New Street,

Burlington.

My mother and my father got married on Saturday, February 17th, 1990 at Gangnam mokhwa wedding place in Seoul, Korea. My mother was 26 years old and my father was 29 years at the time. Church pastor, Jaecheol Heo, officiated at my parents wedding and my sister, brother and I were also baptized as an infant by him. After 3 years of relationship, my parents got married. Without this event, I would not have been born or even my siblings would not exist and my father’s generation would not have continued to us. My mother is second child and she has a brother who is 2 years older, who got married 2 years later. It was not common to get married before your brother who is first child because in Korea men were thought as superior than women.

My grandfather holding my mother's hand to enter the ceremonial hall, one step slowy at a time, closer to where my father is standing at the front podium.

My mother and my father taking picture at the wedding with their beautiful dress and suit. My mother was very shy at that moment.

On Thursday April 14th 2004, My brother, when he was 12 years old, won the Shin-han Bank Art competition and received a grand prize. He received a certificate of award, trophy and $1000. This event was significant because my parent were able notice art skill that my brother consist. Also, this had lead my parents to decide that my brother should roll into SUNHWA ARTS SCHOOL to learn art in more depth to increase his art skills. tlsk middle school was thought to enroll because they only select student with finest techniques and I was pleased when my brother was selected as one of the student.

A picture of my brother standing in front of his art piece called “Nature” that he had drew on the paper with water colors.