Celebrating My 20th Birthday In Korea

 Entering my 20s on the other side of the world is a massive thing for one 19-year-old girl. I have been crying, laughing, being social, and closing myself but still, it is me, the same me who has dreamed of coming to Korea for years. It has already been over 100 days since I moved to Korea and I can say no matter what happened to me I adopted only the good things and let the bad stuff fly away as a butterfly. 

People told me, to run after my dreams, but at the same time, they said I should walk backward. I was swayed many times and I doubted my worth and capability but in the end, I took the risk and trusted no one but my heart and the people who loved me sincerely. Looking at my life until now I was happy, so happy so I can proudly say I know the definition of happiness by heart, not by dictionary. A lot of people come to me and tell me how happy they would have been if they were also where I am or how much better would they have lived if they had something I have but the truth is I was as happy as I am now even before this moment. When I played with my friends in the park in front of my house in the small village I lived my whole life, when I stayed alone at the bus stop at night freezing, hungry, and tired but happy because I was going to take Korean classes in another town since I couldn't afford the online Korean classes and since there weren't many at that time...  

I have always been happy even if I forgot it at times, even when the tears blurred it in my mind, but when I stand up and look at the mirror of life seeing the reflection of the past and the present I see a person who will never trade even 1 moment of his life for someone else`s memories. I fail, I learn, I cry, I become stronger, and all of this is making me a human. The purpose of this text is not to share the story of my life but to tell you one thing: live as happy as possible. I also fall apart, I also want to disappear sometimes but what I believe is that our mindset and beliefs are the only limit to our happiness. 

I changed a lot since I came even though I feel the same. I would have never said NO to someone before but now I put my health *mental and physical* first and saying NO to someone who is not thinking the good of you is the medicine I need sometimes. I don't take things for given and even the food I eat every day is a blessing for me, praying shortly and being grateful that you have something to eat and you are healthy is a crucial part of my daily life. Something I believe will not make me forget I should be grateful for the small things first before taking the stairs to the big accomplishments. Celebrating my birthday weeks before the actual date is something that scared me, something that is unusual to me, something I have never done before but I am accepting the new things keeping at the same time my own beliefs and traditions. For instance, it is raining on my birthday, exactly at the time I am writing this, which will lead me to success according to Bulgarian superstitions. On the other hand, I ate miyeokguk - a seaweed soup that Korean people eat on their birthdays as a respect to their mother who gave birth to them. I am accepting new things but also saving all the treasures I grew up with. 

The same is in life, we should never throw what made us the people we are but we should not hold the past and take the new things too. Greetings from me, being 20, and with this post I want to start being active and create useful materials but also sincere and pure, honest. Happy birthday is like a new beginning which I will use as the beginning of my new wiring and creating content era.