If I didn’t mention it before, the trip to Korea was one that I took with my mother. The idea was that way back when, my dad and sister went together, so it seemed like a suitable idea that this would be a mother and son trip. My mom had recently retired, so she had nothing but time on her hands, and from my perspective, this was a trip that had to be done sooner rather than later, because I didn’t want to live my life with the regret of never going to Korea with my mom while she was still physically able to. Not to mention, my mom had never been back since I’d been alive, so it was literally 38 years since she’d last been in Korea.
This is without question one of the best ideas I’d had in my life, and although I’m not going to sugar-coat and say it was a perfect trip, I don’t have any regrets about going to Korea with my mom one bit. It was meaningful and memorable, and I’m glad to be able to say that my mom was there the first time I visited the Motherland.
I let my mom drive when it came to planning for the trip, since my initial idea of planning a trip to see the places of her childhood and upbringing seemed to fall on deaf ears, so it ended up with us having a few days in Seoul on our own, but then ultimately going on a multi-city tour group through the rest of Korea, back-ended with two more days in Seoul before coming home. I’m not going to pretend like I was pleased with the idea of being on a guided tour, since typically I prefer to be in control of my own destiny, but it was what my mother had wanted, and she didn’t seem to understand that I was quite the competent planner on my own.
