I AM KOREAN AMERICAN

Own Words

Just your average twenty something adopted Korean-American, feminist, penguin-fearing, choir geek from Texas.

I like my tea sweet and my kimchi sour.

Adopted from Seoul, South Korea at the age of 3 months, I spent my formative years in Marietta, Georgia and Southlake, Texas.

In high school, I was heavily involved in show choir and theater (aka anything that would not require me to attend any sort of sporting event). This made me somewhat of an outcast being at a school whose football team was #1 in the nation.

My very first job was performing as a saloon girl in the song & dance revue at Six Flags Over Texas.

In 2004, I got the heck out of Texas and moved to Chicago, IL for college. It was there that I finally admitted to myself that I was Asian. I joined a bunch of groups and went on to become president of DePaul University’s largest (read: only) pan-Asian American student organization.

I graduated with a communciations major and minors in Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies. I was named one of the “Ten Asian American Young Women Who Will Change the World” by Asian Week magazine. Still haven’t quite figured out how to live up to that title.

After working for a year in the ever-so-exciting brand licensing industry out in New Jersey, I moved home to Texas a few months ago where I happily have the option to listen to one of THREE country music stations on the radio.

I now work in the hospitality industry while I study for the LSAT… aka stare at the unopened box of LSAT prep books that my friend fed-exed me.

My heart still lies with the Korean American community. Specifically, other KA Adoptees. I try to give back in little ways, including uploading video blogs on youtube (http://youtube.com/stephxhoney) regarding my views on adoption issues.

Someday I hope to write a poignant, gut-wrenching memoir about my experience as an overseas adoptee– who one day (hopefully) reunites with her birth mother and two biological older sisters.

Unfortunately, this requires a lot of time and energy, which I should probably spend drafting said memoir instead of wasting the effort on composing snarky facebook and twitter statuses.

In the meantime, I take pictures (mostly of myself and my dog due to temporary lack of inspiration) and post them on my website along with clever quotes that I wish I could claim as my own, videos of myself singing or talking to a computer screen and other such amusements: http://stephaniedrenka.com

I hope that somewhere in my randomness, you will see something that you relate with– or even better, something different– that makes you think that there’s more to Korean Americanness than meets the “aiiiigo.”