I AM KOREAN AMERICAN

Own Words

Hi, my name is Nathan Kester. I, like many other Korean Americans, was adopted when I was 3 years old. I was also born deaf with profound hearing loss and was raised by American parents who are deaf too. I learned American Sign Language (ASL) as my first language, then English in elementary school. I graduated at top of my class at Illinois School for the Deaf, then went to Gallaudet University, the only college for the deaf in the world in Washington DC. After spending a year there, I decided to transfer to Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York to major in computer science and got my B.S. degree there. Like many other young adults with a fresh college degree in their hands, I went on looking for a job or internship and found one at one of the departments in the Federal government in Washington DC. After working for one year there, I got an interview with Google and was hired as a datacenter technician where I helped run a datacenter that had massive servers. I built up experience and more skills, then I applied for another job position, Webmaster at Google, as I liked the visual aspects of it and some coding. I was able to get the job, so I moved transcontinentally from Washington D.C. to Mountain View, CA where Google headquarters was at. Not quite finished with myself, I found myself moving again, this time, to my birth country, Korea, where I am currently working with the JAPAC region around there and have a chance at learning more about the culture too.

I should mention that almost 10 years ago, in 2002, I found my birth family with the help of a college student who was studying abroad from Korea. During one night, we met in a studying lounge, and from there, we became friends. I gave her all the information relating to my adoption and during one spring break, she flew back to Korea and visited the orphanage in Seoul where I’d stayed. Fortunately, my birth family had left their information and notes at the orphanage, so they were able to locate them, get a hold of them and let them know that their youngest son had made a contact with them. To my own surprise (isn’t life full of surprises?), I have one sister and one brother. Moreover, my sister was born deaf too. She is the oldest sibling and my brother a middle sibling. I learned I was born in a port city called Incheon. Prior to that, my birthplace wasn’t exactly known. I made plans and finally put together a flight itinerary to fly to Korea and met my birth family for the first time ever since I was adopted.

That’s basically my life story and I’m quite proud to say I am Korean-American with some interesting twists that’s happened in my life. These days, I am busy working as a webmaster for Google and in my spare time, I like going out and experience the life out there such as meeting new people, taking pictures, or playing sports. I also like reading and writing (literature), as these are foods for thoughts. I try to keep my blog somewhat updated, www.ke5ter.com. Feel free to visit anytime. Cheers.