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It has been almost two years since I left home for the first time to begin my life as a teenager in Australia.
When I first begged my parents in Seoul to allow me to leave home for boarding school in Australia, I imagined a life of liberating freedom mixed with the excitement of navigating the daily challenges of a young adult. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 on the day of my departure crushed years of careful planning and plunged me into a big reality check over the rising discrimination facing the world today.
When I boarded my flight for Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 23, 2019, South Korea had just recorded three positive cases of COVID-19. Back then, COVID-19 was not what we know now it to be, convincing me that the panic would quickly fade. Australia announced five positive cases during my flight. Although still an innocuous number, it was enough to greet me with a heightened level of hysteria.
On my arrival, a boarding school staff member explained that the school had made the decision to require two other Asian students and me to leave the school to quarantine for 14 days on suspicions of being possible COVID-19 cases. This decision was justified by pointing out that I was from Asia. To me, this line of logic did not make any sense, as a country with five positive cases was demanding that I, who came from a country with three positive cases, self-isolate.
After a single night, I left my dorm and navigated my way alone to look urgently for a new boarding school that would accept me. It so happens that it was my 16th birthday, so my special day was spent stranded in an unfamiliar country. Over the next five chaotic days, with my parents helping me remotely from Seoul, I eventually trekked my way to another boarding school in Melbourne.
When I left home for Australia, I vividly remember my father prophesizing that independence would be the greatest gift afforded to me over the next three years. Along with gaining independence, I also got fast-tracked lessons on how vulnerable society is to discrimination. To me, the pandemic triggered the emotion of paranoia to rise to the surface, forcing people to reveal hidden racist stereotypes. Previously conditioned to be politically correct, the pandemic has brought out the dark side of some people, proving that discrimination is still rife in the world.
As we are seeing with Djokovic, the pandemic has increased xenophobia toward other ethnicities, most notably towards arriving refugees. However, I am convinced that the fundamental cause of these examples of discrimination is not bad intentions.
My current school was amazingly welcoming by accepting me within a few days of my inquiry and remaining very warm and supportive to overseas students. My experience has given me a positive outlook for the future, and I firmly believe that stereotypical thinking can be reversed.
Even today, many of my well-meaning friends and family members question my decision to leave South Korea for Australia, but I believe the exact opposite. My struggles transitioning from a sheltered life in South Korea to boarding school in Australia have changed my life forever. I now have an enduring goal to fight discrimination and ignorance in society, even if that is done in small steps, one at a time.
Erin Kim is a high school senior at Geelong Grammar School and an Australian state debating champion team member.
