Understand your worth. Value your life. Appreciate your blessings.
I think I know my worth, or at least have a better understanding of it than I used to, but I struggle with whether or not it has had any bearing on the community I've tried for three years now to support -- the foreign community here in Cheonan. After a parody article about Hulk's hit the web, sponsors were angry, potential sponsors backed away, members became super defensive, and I felt like my dream had become a huge mockery. Consequently, I dropped all my interest and efforts in a huge sponsorship opportunity for the expat community, I gave up, and the club's focus on the expat community took a huge shift. It wasn't solely because of the article, oh please, I refuse to give it undue credit there. Instead, the article was a bit of a wake-up call for me. It, along with other factors, made me take a step back to re-evaluate where I was putting all my energy and if it was worth it. Initially I had come with guns blazing, swinging open the doors to Hulk's, anticipating that it'd be this huge beacon of change. And yes, is definitely did bring a big change to the community (the Korean community) but it only really made a ripple in the expat community.
I had initially directed all my energy to the expat community, not giving it first priority but instead giving it the only priority in my books. As a result, the Korean community and our Korean members were left to Snickers to focus on and I realized thankfully sooner than later that this was wrong. I still post our upcoming events and monthly flyer on the Cheonan Facebook group page but my focus is no longer solely on the expact community. They're a hard group of people to tend to in that most don't stay long or plan to stay long for that matter, so their thinking is very different, of course, and I don't blame them. It is a temporary break from life for many here but it is not for me. This is my life here, this is now my home country, and these two points alone really is what divides us "lifers" from others.
I had initially directed all my energy to the expat community, not giving it first priority but instead giving it the only priority in my books. As a result, the Korean community and our Korean members were left to Snickers to focus on and I realized thankfully sooner than later that this was wrong. I still post our upcoming events and monthly flyer on the Cheonan Facebook group page but my focus is no longer solely on the expact community. They're a hard group of people to tend to in that most don't stay long or plan to stay long for that matter, so their thinking is very different, of course, and I don't blame them. It is a temporary break from life for many here but it is not for me. This is my life here, this is now my home country, and these two points alone really is what divides us "lifers" from others.
As for valuing my life, I absolutely do love my life, but as for my blessings, perhaps I don't give them as much recognition as I should. Some of the biggest blessings in my life, especially here in Korea, are people that have walked into it and, for argument sake, those who have thankfully walked out and those I have walked away from too.
Today I decided to bless some of the walking, talking twp-legged blessings in my life and I must admit it felt so good. I felt really great to at least attempt to give back to some of those who have supported me, inspired me, and who have really shown me friendship in Korea. I had picked five people in my life -- five blessings I felt deserving of a little blessing of their own. By the time I closed Hulk's tonight, I had handed over Foxy Brown, had given three free unlimited memberships, and had volunteered myself to help with some of the English legal paper work for a friend's new business venture... and it felt good.
Today I decided to bless some of the walking, talking twp-legged blessings in my life and I must admit it felt so good. I felt really great to at least attempt to give back to some of those who have supported me, inspired me, and who have really shown me friendship in Korea. I had picked five people in my life -- five blessings I felt deserving of a little blessing of their own. By the time I closed Hulk's tonight, I had handed over Foxy Brown, had given three free unlimited memberships, and had volunteered myself to help with some of the English legal paper work for a friend's new business venture... and it felt good.
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