Korea --> Pennsylvania, United States
![Accessibility: [Image description: Pale pink background with five photos in a collage. Top left photo id Jenna as a baby. Top middle is her looking out over a pier on a hike. Bottom middle is a selfie of Jenna. Top right is her with her two children. Bottom right is Jenna as a child. Large text says "Jenna Lee Kim." Smaller text below says "Korea to Pennsylvania, United States."]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/73d316_f76168d29e954862852bb5b646221ef7~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/73d316_f76168d29e954862852bb5b646221ef7~mv2.png)
My name is Jenna Lee Kim, and I'm a transracial, transnational Korean adoptee who grew up in rural Pennsylvania. I arrived in the USA when I was a year old. Growing up, I had an opportunity to attend heritage camps for adoptees, and I felt confident in sharing my origin story. However, my adoptee and Korean identities went largely unexplored for almost 40 years.
"My adoptee and Korean identities went largely unexplored for almost 40 years."
I did not consider these identities beyond the simple concepts that "love makes a family" and "you were a baby who needed a loving family." Though there is truth in both statements, they did not allow me to think critically about why I may have grown up feeling confused while looking different from my predominantly white community, why I had difficulties forming healthy attachments in romantic relationships, and why I felt such pressure to achieve beyond what was expected of me as I people-pleased my way through life.
In 2022, I unexpectedly discovered information about my birth father in Korea. Having spent half a lifetime believing this was an impossibility, it shifted the entire framework of my sense of self. Suddenly, the entire foundation of the life I had built based on "truths" about myself began to crumble. Since then, my family, including two young kids, moved to Korea, I formed a relationship with my birth father, met my birth mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family, and I have spent a lot of time "catching up" on large pieces of my identity that went largely unexplored for so long.
Here's what I want to say: You are strong and exactly where you were meant to be at this moment. You are the expert on your life, feelings, and experiences. There are no rules, no handbook, and no expectations for the path you're taking. Show compassion for yourself and your journey. Most importantly, you're not alone. No matter what you're feeling or what you've experienced, someone is here to sit with you in both the elation and the difficulties. This is a beautiful, unpredictable, all-consuming life, and it's yours to uncover.