My parents came to the states as Korean-immigrants in 1983. Soon after, when my brother and I were born, we became the first American-born members within our family generation. Born and raised in Queens, New York, I moved out to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for my undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where I resided for four years. I began at the School of Fine Arts for the first year and soon after went into the School of Design to study Industrial Design.
Quite often I reflect back at my time studying there. Through my experiences in both schools I was able to gain a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities of the fields within "Art" and "Design". I made connections between the two and recognized the many conceptual ways the two overlap and have distinct characteristics.
Upon graduation, I came home and still held on to my repressed desire to pursue the field of fashion. As you can see through the various paths I've traveled on, I had many interests and wasn't quite set on something exact.
It was a difficult time for me as a young adult (which I still very much am); I wanted so much to know exactly what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be doing and who I wanted to become. But I was constantly in a cloud of confusion. Having grown up in such a rigorous culture of work and success, the pressures of living up to the set standards and wanting to rise above was a constant. I eventually worked in a fashion company for two years. The glamor and magic quickly disintegrated and concluded it wasn't the right industry for me.
I'd worked in several other industries shortly after and continued with my time of exploration of the world post-college. After much processing of the world around me, I now find myself here at Columbia University Teacher's College. How did I end up here? I'll save that for another entry :)
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