“I was born in South Korea, but I grew up in the Philippines. Not really returning to Korea, felt very much like never being “home”. I had to both reimagine and recreate that feeling with the friends and communities I was with.
I would only go back during summers, feeling more estranged than ever. My Korean is not fluent, and people gave me weird looks when they realised that. It was like they didn't question my racial identity, but they did doubt my cultural identity and linguistic ability. I had to pretend to be someone I wasn't. Korea felt like a vacation, not like home.
Now, at the Yale Divinity School, my research interests lie in understanding how human bodies were constructed in classical Greece and Rome. I've found fascinating Biblical passages about both physical and psychological disability. It's fundamentally changed the way I view my friendships. To many people who go through disabilities, their circumstances become their identity, and we need to recognise that.
As part of the Divinity School program, I currently do ministry at a local Korean church. Though I'm Christian, I noticed the kind of Christianity I faced at my church was limiting; it faced a lot of generational and cultural tensions. I felt they were telling me what to believe in; I simply didn't buy that. Because I am a professional, the challenge is figuring out how to subvert some of these ideas in a way that isn't perceived by the “elders.” Working with 6th graders allows children to share their life stories with me, because most of them have grown up as second-generation Koreans who have bilingual and bicultural backgrounds that give them difficulties similar to mine. I try to help them any way that I can, so in a way this experience has given me both the greatest joy and greatest sadness during my time here.”
Joseph (Sang Wuk) Lee, MDiv Candidate '19 #HumansOfOISS
