the story of how i was born

as told by my mother, translated from korean by me:

korea, back in 1979, my family lived in daegu, a city south of seoul by 2 hours. near the time of my birth, my father changed jobs and due to that transition, he asked my mother to stay with his parents in yoeju (their hometown), where she would have help, if and when she needed it.

my mother felt contractions the night before i was born and in the morning, the contractions continued...all the while, my grandmother wondered why my mother hadn't joined them (she, my gramps, and my dad) for breakfast and my older sister, then 3 years old, insisted that she didn't want to eat breakfast (my mom said, "go eat breakfast" and she said, "싫어!" i don't want to!) and stayed in the same room with my mother.

when my grandmother checked in on my mom she was hunched over, suffering the pain, and surprisingly, not at all vocally--my mom told me that when she was in birthing pain, she leaned more towards the quiet rather than loud spectrum--and my grandma went into midwife mode and was running around her house trying to find the things she needed. my mother overheard my grandma say how can she deliver if she's wearing clothes so, off went the pants and underoos and a few moments later, i slipped out into the world, wailing, as my mom says, from the cold. it was january. my grandmother arrived to cut my umbilical cord and skillfully crafted my belly button! afterwards, the placenta scared the shit out of my mother when it escaped her body! my mom made me laugh by saying if she hadn't taken off her clothes, there wouldn't have been any space for me to get out!

my sister was witness to this entire event and unsurprisingly, she doesn't remember much. but, she excitedly informed our dad of my gender. she must've ran out to greet him and he asked, "is the baby like me?" ie, is the baby a boy? and she replied, "나 같은것!" she's like me, she's like me! poor dad. like most korean fathers at the time, he was hoping for a son and all he got was another girl.

luck, however, was on his side when three years later, our baby brother was born!