9. Take a family vacation abroad

My family immigrated to the United States in 1994, when I was 5 years old. Moving countries itself was such a big move, that our neighborhood itself was considered foreign to my parents. Assimilating to the American suburban life was difficult in itself, which never gave much room for leisure to travel. One family vacation that I can remember is a trip to Virginia Beach, 3 hours from our home, where the four of us camped in the tent that my dad made for us. That was the last family trip we were to take in a very long time. My parents soon separated thereafter, leaving the concept of “vacation” even a more unattainable option for the holidays to come. Fast forward 15 years later, our family of four decided to be together again (long story) and family vacations, family photos, anything with the word family was once again something I could realistically grasp. Never have I ever been more thankful and grateful for what happened in my life, but it was definitely a long hard-fought journey. Once the opportunity came back, I did not hesitate to take full advantage of all the things I had imagined in my head throughout the 15 years the word “family” had been absent. We started with family photos and mini domestic vacations in Korea (we were all living in Korea at the time). Finally, though, my longing to take my family on a real vacation abroad would be fulfilled in the Philippines. I booked four roundtrip tickets to Cebu and planned a week-long trip to Cebu City and Oslob, with many activities planned for our family, including swimming with whale sharks in Oslob. This trip meant everything to me and I couldn’t have been happier spending my years-saved savings. So what happened? Our family’s happily ever after came very late in our lives. It took a couple years for us to adjust to our new situation. Slowly but surely, we became an even more loving family, and my parents moved to an island in Korea and built a house in the countryside- my mom’s life dream. I moved to New York City to attend graduate school, my brother was hired by a respected high school in Korea, my parents adopted two husky puppies, and now even if we are continents apart, I feel that somewhere in the world I have a family I can always go home to. Happily ever after can’t get better than this, right?