Here’s a non-comprehensive list of valuable things I have learned so far:
- Stay out of cane fields. Seriously, this is the most important one. I’ve learned from watching K-dramas that the only things in cane fields are corpses, or the serial killers who make them. Cane fields are the Korean equivalent of the mesa (where I come from) with better camouflage. You see a cane field? Walk in the opposite direction.
- Bring people coffee. People are never sad if you bring them coffee when you meet them (or, if they don’t drink coffee, boba tea or vitamin water). It doesn’t take much longer than getting a coffee for yourself and is really simple way to show you’re thinking about them.
- Don’t be too fragile. You should have at least one person in your life who can tell it to you like it is without you getting all butt-hurt and ghosting them. I mean, make sure they have your back first. But true friends don’t let friends date losers/wear mock turtlenecks/play Genshin Impact 18 hours a day/be jerks. Let someone (or a couple of someones) in your perimeter.
- Take care of yourself. You’re worth that trip to the jimjilbang, and the hour walk around the lake, and that new perfume, and the evening out with friends, and that gym membership, and that 15 minutes of meditation, and that play session with your dog, and that comedy special on Netflix that makes you laugh until you cry. There’s only ever been and will only ever be one of you on the planet. Behave accordingly.
- Eat deliciously. This is how it’s always translated from Korean in the subtitles, and it kind of doesn’t make sense in English, but then again, it really does…. I learned this lesson not only from K-dramas but from the Korean Buddhist nun I took a cooking class from: food is a treasure. Even the smallest strawberry you eat is this compressed gem of light and heat from the sun, and water, and earth minerals and sugars and aromatics and the miracles of living cells–not to mention the life and labor and love of the farmers who grew it, and the cooks who prepared it for you. All of that just to nourish you and give you the energy you need to live. So, really enjoy eating. Don’t escape the experience into your phone or thoughts of what you’re going to do or have to do after you eat. Just stay present, and eat what you love deliciously, preferably with people you love. That’s how to say thank you.
The Rookery 