From The Peopling of New York City

Who I Am

Andrew Moon (Born on August 2, 1990)

I am an American born Korean with one older brother named Alex Moon. I am majoring in biomedical engineering and hoping to minor in either psychology or math. My hobbies are playing handball, riding bikes, sketching, sleeping, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. It is very difficult to get me to love anything and I am picky about things I like to do as well. I enjoy time for myself to think but I also enjoy hanging out with my friends and having a good time. My favorite readings from Seminar 2 were “Trying to find Chinatown,” the poems, and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. I am a member of the Chinese group for the project. My dislikes about seminar 2 is that at times it can be a bit unorganized.

Where I'm From

Pacing back and forth I pondered on the idea of where it all begin. Being a Korean American born in Flushing, New York, I have only been exposed to the life style of New Yorkers. “The city that never sleeps,” where people are always in a rush, you can never stop and enjoy the weather. Never have I been exposed to any other region first hand and never have I been interested in my origins, until now.

My parents were born in South Korea, in the city of Seoul. They were both born into families that were doing well, especially during that period of time in Korea where the economy wasn’t doing well. My mother moved to America at the age of 13 to New York, Queens in the city of Flushing, due to problems arising in Korea. For my father, he completed college in Korea and came to New York, Staten Island for graduate school. For my father’s parents, they were born and raised in South Korea, in the city of Seoul as well. But my mother’s parents were born in North Korea, which is interesting because of the way we view the place now. North Korea is a place that is now known as an almost inescapable location if born as a citizen, but the present differs greatly from the past. My grandmother was born in Pyung Yang Nam Do, North Korea in the city of Geh Chan and my grandfather was born in Pyong Yang Nam Do, North Korea in the city of Young Kang. Although they were still South Korean and citizens of South Korea, the time period that they lived in led to great difficulties and complications. The constant battles and war between the North and South has divided the two even more but due to these circumstances, the people where moved from place to place to prevent casualties.

They moved back to South Korea in the city of Seoul in the 1950s and started their life over again. My grandfather has succeeded and gained much wealth during the period even with the economic problems by becoming the owner of a company similar to coal mining. But after the business started to show large drop in profit and the economy was worsening, he decided to move the family to America for the “American Dream” as many others. He was influenced to move to New York because his younger brother has moved there in the past and managed to succeed. So, my family moved to Flushing, New York to live the American dream and live a better life.

My NY

New York, a place I was born and raised, is a place that has many meanings. I was born in Flushing and lived there for 90% of my life and the other 10% I lived in Staten Island, so I have never really lived outside of New York. I have grown attached to New York City in a love hate relationship with it. It is a place where there is always something to do if you take the time to do it but it is also a place where you have very little time to do anything. As I look through pictures, videos, and reminisce about my life I realize that New York is everything to me. It is a place I can’t escape even if I wanted to, my roots have settled down here and the memories of the past always bring me back to the start. This place is my past, present, and future. So, New York for me is everything; it is home, memories, love, friendship, happiness, adventure, experience, curiosity, stupidity, pain, and freedom.