_{Two months ago, we were on our way home from South Korea, where we celebrated the New Year. This is the final installment in my nine-part love letter to the Land of the Morning Calm.}

First of all, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported this series through commenting. It's what fuels me, what literally keeps me going here. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and Seoul. * wink *

To anyone expecting an all-out balls to the wall, whizzbang finale, I'm sorry to disappoint you. As with what I've done throughout this series, I'm all about subverting expectations, from a reverse story to tongue-in-cheek verbosity. So, this is yet another misdirect, but one that I've exposed at the very beginning.

Instead, this is a contemplative post, in the vein of my spectacular sis @dreemit's reflective posts, recapping the whole nine-day trip. No need to strap in your seatbelts for this one, but I won't stop you if you want to go grab some popcorn. Go on, we'll wait.

Done?

Let's get to it!

It wasn't my first time in South Korea, and it hopefully won't be my last. I had been to Jeju Island a year earlier with my family, back when times were simpler. Fast forward to a year later, I'm now engaged and the woman I'm set to marry would join us during the trip. It wasn't the first time she would be joining a family trip either, and it most certainly won't be the last. The first was back when we went to Singapore, where I wrote a story for everyday during the trip.

This time, it was different. This time, I was determined to be in the moment, to enjoy every second of the trip. That was the last trip I was ever going to take as an unmarried man, so while I'm excited to have a life partner for the rest of my days, there's a part of me that would miss untethered trips. I wondered if ancient civilizations ever thought that their way of life was going to stay unchanged forever. Imagine living in a time of so much ignorance, where every advancement in science felt like magic. I guess that would be the same feeling future civilizations would have about us. Well, that is if we don't trigger a mass extinction that wipes out all of human knowledge and our descendants would be forced to start from scratch.

Speaking of nuclear winters and starting from scratch, the picture above is a view of North Korea. We were that close to a nation so closed off from the world. For fifty cents, you could use a telescope to catch a glimpse of whatever the northerners are up to using a telescope. When I peered through it, I saw three people huddled around a bonfire. We were freezing our ass off while wearing layers of insulated clothing, only saved by the heaters found conveniently in every room and vehicle. All the while, they're up there huddled around fire trying to keep themselves alive. Gives a bit of perspective, doesn't it?

Speaking of perspective, I'm glad that I held off on writing this earlier because I was able to compare notes with my boom brother @meesterboom's run-in with the white stuff and my soul sister @dreemit's flash experience with snow. Living in a country that doesn't experience snow, the little cold that I feel whenever I travel in high altitude places was already enough for me. Snow was this magical thing that I kept searching for, all the while other people suffer through months of it, cursing its very existence. It's funny when you think about the parallels. Go on, think about it. Did you laugh? I mean, did you laugh though?

I've been told we experienced a tropical winter back in Jeju Island. The cold was already unbearable then, so I dreaded what snow would feel like. We checked the forecasts and it had a little snowflake on it. I was excited and scared at the same time. Do you ever get that feeling? Like when you're graduating after an awesome school experience. On one hand you're excited to get out into the real world, on the other, stepping into the unknown is terrifying.

Our guide told us that it would snow on our second night, so we marked it on our calendars. We couldn't think of where the best place for us to witness our first snowfall would be. He dropped us at Myeongdong, so I guess the decision was made for us. We spent the entire time eating street food and taking pictures. I don't know why it is, but I have a sensitive nose for rain. It's like I could smell petrichor from a mile away. I'm like a human rain detector. A raintector, if you will. Since snow is frozen rain, that pretty much locks it in. The stage was set, and I had my mouth wide open to receive it.

Alas, unfrozen snow fell. Everyone pulled up their hoodie or brought out their umbrella. We looked at our phones and it showed the temperature as 2 degrees above zero. The next days had no chance of snow either. Had we continued with our initial schedule, which was a week earlier, we would've experienced glorious snowfall. It was the same with Jeju all over again.

It seemed like our dreams of ever experiencing that cold powder would remain as that. Were we cursed? Were we destined to never experience it? Would us experiencing it trigger the end of the world as we knew it? As we stood there, in the cold rain, we couldn't help our thoughts from swirling in our heads. Days passed and we put the thought of ever experiencing snow at the back of our minds. If we didn't expect to experience it, we wouldn't be disappointed if we didn't.

Sometimes in life, we work hard to achieve goals but never even come close to it. That doesn't mean that journey you made in trying to reach it was a complete waste. There's something to be said about outcomes and results, but there are a million more things to be said about the path to attain it.

If decades of talks doesn't yield peace, does that mean that it was all for nothing? Does building railways in hopes that trains would pass over them in the future a complete waste if they rust out even before they were of use? Are monuments built for years, yet taken down in minutes, even worth the effort?

I don't think there's even a right answer for those questions. Those who would oppose that assumption is wrong.

Also, in life, we don't always get exactly what we want. We work with what we have. Squeaky wheels get the grease, but wheels should learn when to squeak. Things find a way of working themselves out when you let things fall as they may.

In the nine days we spent, we discovered more about ourselves and how we interacted given different environments. We didn't always see eye to eye, yet we found a way to make things work. The interaction, the laughter, the talks, the memories—everything will stick with us for decades to come. We will look back at this trip and think of it in a positive light. I do believe that I speak for my entire family when I say that the lessons we learned will guide us through the rest of our lives.

We went back to South Korea in search of snow, but what we found was something more precious. We found contentment.

_{Oh, and we found snow.}

---

<< Part 8

---

한국, 정말 고마워요!

---

Look no further than @lukestokes.mhth to solve your STEEM woes. Help keep him as a top witness to keep the STEEM flowing :D

---

_{Join me in my Year of Resilience!}