My Life: Prologue

Photo taken when I was about four years old. Left to right: grandfather, aunt, ???, me, and my cousin.

I was born in Seoul, South Korea. I lived in a in-between wealthy and poor (closer to poor) family. I went through a lot of hardships in my life: my father dying, my brother and I being separated from our mom, and going to a different house. Being separated from my brother in the orphanage and finally ending up here in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Source: My Life. An Autobiography by John Murphy

Unsatisfied, I took a break. I wanted this introduction to quickly give readers an overall picture of me. Entire libraries of books valiantly failed the task of describing a single human! How could I summarize myself in a single blog post?

I started chatting with my mom. During our discussion, she retrieved a slim red book: ah, the autobiography I had authored back in fourth grade. And there, I found it: a simple, poignant introduction. Who would have guessed I had already written the perfect introduction over sixteen years ago?

There's actually enough material in the book for several posts. Even as its author, I found this autobiography incredibly interesting to read. Each of the posts in the My Life series will start with a chapter of my autobiography followed by my analysis, much like this post.

I kept the original text mostly intact, only editing for simple grammar and spelling. My analysis mentions any corrections and clarifications to the content. For example, my mother emphasized we were quite poor, and I was not really born in Seoul. I grew up near Busan, Korea. My brother and I were shuffled around various relatives' houses for several months before being placed for adoption.