pia park (dot) me

overcoming the root; family

note, this is heavily personal story but it’s what composing who i am rn, hope you enjoy :)

We had a family dinner at Christmas, and my parents shared their journey. They grew up in a rural village in southern Korea, surrounded by fields and the sea. Their parents were a farmer and a fisherman, and life was modest. In the 1980s, they moved to Seoul(big city) for the first time, with no money and no network. My dad couldn’t attempt the university entrance exam again after he failed, and my mom couldn’t even attend university because their parents couldn’t support them. They both needed to earn money as quickly as possible. They met at an office and started their newlywed life in a semi-basement apartment, with just $1k in cash.

They worked incredibly hard and saved almost every bit of what they earned. My mom struggled to support the family due to a lack of a degree, and my dad’s salary wasn’t much either. Yet, they wanted to at least buy a house in Seoul. They double downed on real estate and took out a loan, which pushed their debt to $800k at one point. They made many mistakes but learned a lot from them. My dad stayed with the same company for over 30 years, all the while holding onto two dreams 1. One day, our family could afford a house. 2. His child could go to a good university, unlike him and my mom.

We talked about dreams and desires — the things that push us to our limits. Even though my parents and I started from different places, I understand how it feels to pursue big dreams that almost seemed impossible - because you have to think different from your root environment.

I deeply desire to make an impact on the world by building something meaningful not just inside one country or money wise. But growing up, I followed the Korean educational system, which focused heavily on exams. My curiosity expanded mostly through books only. When I entered university, I finally pursue what I wanted to learn and build, but I didn’t know where or how to start. I reached out to people, sent cold emails, and had coffee chats to learn more about startup culture and scene, but I still felt limited. So last year, I decided to go abroad with no money and no connections. I took 44 flights in total, adopted English as my main language through effort, self taught engineering, got a job, pushed myself to complete projects and do good work. I made a lot of mistakes but also learned a lot.

Talking with my parents made me realize that, even though we started from different places and have different goals, we share the same passion and desire to overcome our roots and move toward freedom and fulfillment. I’m not saying I agree with their ideas totoally. While I don’t view owning a house or attending a good university as life goals, this conversation made me respect and understand their journey — the leap they took from where they came from and the huge effort it took to get there.

The main quality I’ve inherited from my parents is resilience — the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties. There have been many moments where decisions were hard to make, situations felt unclear, and I wanted to give up, questioning if everything I did was wrong. In those times, I’ve always tried to follow my inner north star, striving to achieve a meaningful life.

Throughout my parents’ 30+ years of effort, they’ve shown me what resilience, sheer determination, and consistency look like. I’m deeply grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from them.

Some lessons I’ve taken away from this are:

And merry christmas!🎄

#Life