Difference between revisions of "Age 2-4"

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= Memories =
= Memories =
Around the time I was 3, I had a few key memories from Chicago:
*As for my time in Korea (until 1987), my memories are practically zero. I do remember being shown photos of myself from when I was 2 at around the age of 4, but I distinctly remember questioning whether it was still me.
*I remember an incident with a friend, where we ate a small restaurant condiment dipper sized amount of salt and sesame oil. I mean, it was tasty for some reason, and I must have not had enough sodium. It wasn't a whole lot, probably only a couple grams split between us, though, I guess I was only 3. When our parents found out, they were a mixture of concerned and terrified. My mom was relatively calm and told me to drink lots of water (which I did), but my friend's mom rushed him to the bathroom and ordered him to pee. Odd reaction, and even now, I don't get the rationale, though it's probably something to do with hydrostatic equilibrium.
*Around the time I was 3, I remember an incident with a friend, where we ate a small restaurant condiment dipper sized amount of salt and sesame oil. I mean, it was tasty for some reason, and I must have not had enough sodium. It wasn't a whole lot, probably only a couple grams split between us, though, I guess I was only 3. When our parents found out, they were a mixture of concerned and terrified. My mom was relatively calm and told me to drink lots of water (which I did), but my friend's mom rushed him to the bathroom and ordered him to pee. Odd reaction, and even now, I don't get the rationale, though it's probably something to do with hydrostatic equilibrium.
*I remember grandma (dad's side) carrying me on her back and getting gummy bears. Remember what I said about the fear of crime? I seem to remember her being slightly hilariously racist when walking down the streets, but I can't fault her for that. This was, after all a foreign country, and was the early 90s near the South Side of Chicago. Rough place and time.
*I remember grandma (dad's side) carrying me on her back and getting gummy bears. Remember what I said about the fear of crime? I seem to remember her being slightly hilariously racist when walking down the streets, but I can't fault her for that. This was, after all a foreign country, and was the early 90s near the South Side of Chicago. Rough place and time.
*I remember a paper plate with blue handprints in paint (presumably mine), dated from some time in 1989. I am uncertain on if it was while we lived in Evanston or Chicago.
Barely any memories, but some relics remain. I remember a plate with blue handprints, dated from some time in 1989. It must have been from when we were in Chicago, but my memories of it are all from Evanston, a year later 1990… As for my time in Korea (until 1987), my memories are practically zero. I do remember being shown photos of myself from when I was 2 at around the age of 4, but I distinctly remember questioning whether it was still me.
*As for Chicago, I also seem to remember there being a pool, and going at least a couple times. This memory was reinforced by a photo I saw of a concrete pool.
 
As for Chicago, I also seem to remember there being a pool, and going at least a couple times. This memory was reinforced by a photo I saw of a concrete pool.


= School =
= School =

Revision as of 15:49, 22 July 2015

I have no memory of the flight to the US in 1987, so despite this and this period being a hugely significant marker in my life, I rely almost entirely on the memories of others to construct this history. Even my memories in Chicago start out as mere wisps of thought, but gradually build into an image of identity at around age 3 as I developed a sense of agency and grasp of the workings of the world (as well as a 3 year old can).

Notables:

  • In 1987, my family moved to Chicago, Illinois from Seoul, Korea.
  • In 1989(?) my family moved to Evanston, Illnois.

Home life

In Chicago, we lived in the Green (possibly; unconfirmed) apartments somewhere close to the UIC campus. This would have been near-South Side, current Little Italy, but in the late 1980s, which was notorious for crime. This coincided with an rising epidemic of gun violence sweeping across America, and formed the beginnings of "no tolerance" policies of the 90s across schools in the United States. My family was fortunate enough to never have any incidents, and whatever sense of fear my parents may have felt, I was never exposed to it, but in later stories from my parents and grandmother who came to visit, I was told that the fear of crime was pervasive through this period, and was a factor in us moving to the northern Chicago suburb of Evanston in 1989.

Despite all the adult concerns going on, I remember this period of childhood as a fun time when I observed the world from above (the apartment window), experimented with my surroundings to learn how things worked, and enjoyed as adventures the outings with my parents and grandmother to places of work for my parents. I don't remember too much *talking* during this time, and it is something that I feel could have helped me, but I quickly developed a sense for language and I remember my mother teaching me Korean from colored flashcards. Not that it helped me in school where i was learning English, but my parents largely spoke Korean at home, and learning what I did from these flashcards it gave me some basic literacy, and a sense for how the languages were connected.

Memories

  • As for my time in Korea (until 1987), my memories are practically zero. I do remember being shown photos of myself from when I was 2 at around the age of 4, but I distinctly remember questioning whether it was still me.
  • Around the time I was 3, I remember an incident with a friend, where we ate a small restaurant condiment dipper sized amount of salt and sesame oil. I mean, it was tasty for some reason, and I must have not had enough sodium. It wasn't a whole lot, probably only a couple grams split between us, though, I guess I was only 3. When our parents found out, they were a mixture of concerned and terrified. My mom was relatively calm and told me to drink lots of water (which I did), but my friend's mom rushed him to the bathroom and ordered him to pee. Odd reaction, and even now, I don't get the rationale, though it's probably something to do with hydrostatic equilibrium.
  • I remember grandma (dad's side) carrying me on her back and getting gummy bears. Remember what I said about the fear of crime? I seem to remember her being slightly hilariously racist when walking down the streets, but I can't fault her for that. This was, after all a foreign country, and was the early 90s near the South Side of Chicago. Rough place and time.
  • I remember a paper plate with blue handprints in paint (presumably mine), dated from some time in 1989. I am uncertain on if it was while we lived in Evanston or Chicago.
  • As for Chicago, I also seem to remember there being a pool, and going at least a couple times. This memory was reinforced by a photo I saw of a concrete pool.

School

I call this place in my memory the Green Room because that’s what we called it back then. Officially, it was a preschool care service that my dad had access to as a grad student at UIC, and it's where I spent a good chunk of my weekday mornings, but every day started with a 20 minute commute in our family car. I was an only child at that point--a state which I need to remind myself, because our family was different then.

Mom was either at home, or at school.

I have trances of memories of my first days at the Green Room. I remember

I hardly remember anything prior to that, but I believe I was around 4 at this point.

On dad working

The architecture at UIC was certainly memorable. I later learned it was inspired by a wave of brutalism in the 50s-60s as the post-modern world tried to figure out what's cool. But by the late 80s, it's dual negative associations with the problems with public housing projects, and as a nature of an almost military like-look began to turn the once avant-garde into an eyesore. I knew none of this, and just thought the building my dad worked at was super-cool.