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This year, Tara’s parents decided to do whatever they could to be a part of her journey.  One way they came up with to accomplish this was to open their home to two foreign exchange students, Juho and Marie.  Over the last year, these girls have moved their entire life into a foreign country and have learned what it looks like to live an American life.  Early tomorrow morning, Juho will leave to go home for the summer to South Korea.  The exciting news is that this year was such a great one that Juho will be returning for another year.

She was enrolled at one of the local Christian schools that Tara went to and her mother teaches at.  While the Reeds were very firm in the fact that they would never push Christianity or any religious decisions on the girls, they weren’t going to change the way they lived their lives.  So the girls were invited to tag along for church, get involved with youth groups, and ever participate in Bible studies, but never forced.  For most of the year, the girls did their own thing for the most part, but by the end of the year, Juho was using her gift in singing to join the choir at her school and even participate in worship.
Now, Juho will be heading back home for at least a couple of months.  South Korea was a demanding environment for her, and she was able to experience a lot of different things through her year in the States.  Through the year, she was able to come into her personality a little more and even develop and fit in with the rest of her classmates.  Her return home will be a shorter one this time around as she and her family (the Korean and American side) are preparing for her second year in Phoenix.  
I wanted to tag this note Juho wrote yesterday as she contemplated her year abroad.  At the beginning of the year, I remember her locking herself in her room when one of the other foreign exchange students came over, and now she is becoming the life of the party.  This has been a good year for her and I can’t wait to see what comes out of her second go around.  Here are a few of her thoughts on her way out of the country…

The chance for coming to America was given to me two more times before.

I was too young and afraid of being alone in foreign country at that time,

so I kept refusing my father’s suggestion.

 

I got so sick of boring Korean education and I always dreamed about going to America through television.

Finally, I made up my mind to leave Korea.

That decision was the first step to go out to the world.

 

The world is wide enough to challenge.

 

When you are standing on your own part of the ground, you feel safety and confidence a lot.

You are little bit afraid of the new world but a little bit respect it, too.

 

You need only one step to go out of you part of the ground for going to the new world.

 

Only one step can change your whole things.

Only one step will guide you to a new world.

It can be dangerous.

It can be boring.

It can be full of sadness, too.

But still you can take a risk which you couldn’t take in your own ground,

you can feel new boredom through new world,

and also you can notice the other sadness in other world.

 

Too fast to live, too young to die.

 

The life goes too fast to enjoy it.

But the death is a thing which is really far away.

 

Men, Women, and Teenagers.

 

Because we are teenagers, we can challenge a lot of things.

We can be really crazy in the night with the friends.

Get to know a lot of things that you’ve never heard about,

make your friends through a lot of awkward situations.

 

Vita Dolce, Moderato.

 

Just enjoy your life.

This is your chance given for you.

And we have the right to enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

I love you daddy, I love you Reeds family.

I love you, Marie, I love you my SCA friends.

 

 

And,

I love you,

Juho Jung.