Nature vs. Nurture

From my WordPress:

I was adopted from South Korea when I was 5 months old. My family is caucasian and Jewish. I’ve been asked many questions in my life; about adoption, about where I’ve been, and where I want to go in the world and in life, but the questions I am asked the most frequently are questions about my identity.

First and foremost, let me state the obvious: I am still not finished sorting my identity out. Are you?

But, I’ll give you all something — forming my identity has not come easily both racially and religiously. As a Jewish Asian-American, I’ve received almost a “double whamy,” I am a double minority. Growing up, if I wasn’t teased for being Asian, I was teased for being Jewish and vice vera — maybe I was just a weird kid.

People ask me, “When did you begin to identify yourself as a Jew?” “Do you associate yourself with being American or Korean?” These were questions that I never had to ask myself, nor do I ask myself these questions now. I usually politely reply, “When did you begin to associate yourself with your religion?” “When did you begin to associate yourself with the country you grew up in?”

Often times I think to myself, “Gosh, what ignorant people!” But then I remind myself that adoption from other countries is still a relatively new concept.

The question of nature versus nurture has played a major role in my life — I embody that question. Sure, there are some things that I can’t control genetically. Things like my race, family medical history (which I know nothing about), and DNA. But, there are things that I can greatly attribute to nurture. Like my ambition (thanks, Mom and Dad!), my morals and my values.

I know almost nothing about my ethnic background, nor have I had any great interest in learning about it until very recently. I have never been back to Korea, and until I was 6 or 7 years old, I thought all Koreans lived in huts in the middle of no where. How ignorant was I back then??

Growing up in a Jewish household, I learned that my homeland is Israel. I’ve been privileged enough to travel to Israel three times in a matter of six years, and although religiously I see Israel as my homeland and I feel such a strong connection to the country, I blatantly stand out.

This May, I am traveling to South Korea with my parents to see the country where I was born. The thing that I most want to do is to wander the streets by myself, and appreciate a place where everyone looks like me. I wonder what that experience will be like, I wonder if after traveling to Korea I will understand myself better.

I guess time will tell. I hope I didn’t bore you all too much with my first blog post, I just wanted to give you all a deeper look inside of who I really am.

Goodnight friends!
Meryl