Q1. Please briefly introduce yourself!
Hello, I am Kim Jin-ju. I graduated from university this year, and now I am doing whatever I want while waiting for a new beginning. My favorite saying is ‘If you know it, you love it, and if you love it, it stays in your life!’ I hope that the more I know about the world, the more things will stay in my life :)
Q2. Please tell us why you applied to MAP.
When my purpose in life and direction in my career became faint for a while, I worked as an intern at an organization that supports refugees in Korea. After that experience, my interest in migrants (refugees) grew into the thought that being beside them is the role I have been given in the world. So I applied as a volunteer to continue learning and gaining experience at a place like MAP that supports and stands by refugees.
Q3. When do you feel most like yourself?
When I look back at how I am when I meet people, I think that is when I feel most like myself. I value the time spent getting to know someone, and I like it so much that the person I am in that time is the one I like most and the one that seems to explain me best. But sometimes I am easily hurt, and I dislike that side of myself ㅠ_ㅠ!
Q4. Is there something you have never done but would like to try in order to discover yourself?
I really want to travel abroad alone and live on my own. I have never lived independently from my parents, so I am not sure whether I have the will to manage life on my own, haha. I am also curious about another side of myself, such as how I would spend time alone and adapt in a place other than Korea, so I definitely want to try these two things!
Q5. When in your life did you feel excluded?
It was the most excluded I have ever felt in my life, but it has now become a precious experience because it helps me understand the lives of refugees. When I was in middle school, it rained so hard that rainwater flooded our home, which was on a low floor. I lost most of my belongings, such as the letters my friends had written me and the clothes and books I treasured, which was heartbreaking. The saddest part was that I had to live apart from my family until the house was restored. In that process I witnessed a society that neglected our circumstances, and I could feel what it is to be excluded. It was a great hurt at the time, but suddenly going through an unwanted situation and having to move involuntarily has now become the central axis for understanding the situation of refugees.
Q6. Finally, what kind of ‘change’ do you want to bring about through your work at MAP?
I want to contribute, even a little, so that everyone who meets MAP can go beyond knowing that there are refugees in Korea and come to understand them and empathize with their backgrounds. I also want to bring about a change in myself. Sometimes I am fooled by the familiarity of knowing a lot about migrants (refugees) and lose sight of their preciousness for a moment.. haha! So I look forward to a change that keeps me, even as one person, continually interested.
