Just a Jeju Girl

https://www.mk.co.kr/en/society/11985142   Recently, I came across to this news saying that Korean women are among the most well-traveled women in the world. And honestly, I'm not surprised! And as Korean, I could definitely can see why this was happening (although personally I can't fully believe this news). I think it's because there's a social / peer pressure that domestic tour is waste of time and money compare to what you can "learn" and "earn" from traveling abroad. And apparently, they say it's "waste of youth" if you're not traveling Europe? But I just wanted to ask again, like does traveling actually expand our world, or do we just move our bodies while our minds stay the same? And emphasizing that physical travel is not the only way to explore the world. What's really important, is not the distance, it's the depht of how present you are within yourself. Are you 100% standing firmly on the ground with your own feet? Are you fully communicating with yourself? Do you KNOW who you are before rushing to explore the world, maybe somewhere that has absolutely nothing to do with your life and your future?

The people who left my life, and the people I have yet to meet— where do passing connections and lingering longing go? My small wisdom cannot know. The only thing I know is how to keep living.   - yong pil Cho, <Song of the wind>   1. not every relationship ends because someone did something wrong 2. sometimes time itself changes the relationship 3. people grow in different directions   Love you! 

I guess at the end, what we really wanted is to be loved and to be understood by someone who matters.

I’ve always felt things very deeply. For most of my life, that meant emotional highs and lows that felt overwhelming — joy that felt infinite, sadness that felt permanent, anger that felt defining. As someone who is emotionally wired by nature, I used to believe that whatever I was feeling in the moment was the truth. And sometimes, I made decisions purely based on that truth — only to regret them later. In this episode, I reflect on what it means to live as an emotional person in a world that often rewards stability and control. I talk about the mistakes I’ve made when I treated temporary emotions as permanent conclusions. I share a quote that stayed with me: “Life is about managing your emotions.” And it took me years to understand what that really meant. Feeling annoyed doesn’t mean you don’t love someone. Feeling disappointed doesn’t mean everything is ruined. Feeling lost doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Emotions are real — but they are not final. As a 27-year-old woman navigating work, friendships, and the dramas that come with personal relationships, I’ve learned a few small practices that help when emotions feel too loud. In this episode, I share a simple guide: check your body before your thoughts, sleep before you spiral, write before you react, and speak to someone who makes you feel safe. This isn’t about becoming less emotional. It’s about becoming more responsible with your emotions. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by what you feel — this episode is for you. No emotion is final. And neither is the version of you that exists in that moment.

Before I applied, the challenge challenged me first. This episode is about the quiet resistance that comes before action — the hesitation, the shrinking, the voice that asks, “Who do you think you are?” When I considered applying to a large, well-established company, I didn’t feel excitement at first. I felt small. I wondered if it would be inappropriate, even disrespectful, for someone like me to apply. As if simply trying would expose something I wasn’t ready to face. What I was really feeling wasn’t a lack of ability. It was impostor syndrome — the belief that I didn’t truly belong in the room I was standing outside of. The fear that my confidence was borrowed, that my place was temporary, that sooner or later someone would realize I wasn’t “enough.” In this episode, I talk honestly about that feeling — the quiet self-doubt that doesn’t shout, but slowly convinces you to step back. I reflect on the difference between humility and self-erasure, between being realistic and being unnecessarily cruel to yourself. I also share the moment when my thinking shifted: when I realized that while applying felt like a possible disrespect to others, not trying at all felt like a much bigger disrespect to myself. This episode isn’t about success or outcomes. It’s about permission. Permission to try before you feel ready. Permission to take up space before you feel certain. Permission to move forward even while your confidence lags behind your courage. If you’ve ever felt intimidated by an opportunity, paralyzed by self-doubt, or unsure whether you’re “allowed” to want more — this episode is for you. Sometimes, the hardest part of a challenge isn’t the challenge itself. It’s believing that you’re allowed to face it.

Referenced TED talk in this episode <Are you a giver or taker? by Adam Grant> : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyXRYgjQXX0   In this episode, I start with a comment my supervisor casually made about me — that I seem smart, but if you really look closely, I’m kind of a fool. He probably didn’t mean it seriously. But the words stayed with me longer than I expected. Because sometimes, I wonder the same thing about myself. In a world that rewards strategy, calculation, and self-interest, kindness can feel like a disadvantage. Being considerate. Giving people the benefit of the doubt. Choosing empathy over efficiency. At times, it feels like choosing the losing side — or at least the slower one. This episode is not about proving that kindness is morally superior, or pretending that being nice always leads to good outcomes. Instead, it’s an honest reflection on the quiet doubts that come with being a giver. The moments when you ask yourself: Am I being kind, or am I just bad at protecting my own interests? Would my life look different if I were a little more calculated? Is this world ultimately built for people who know how to take, rather than give? I also reflect on a talk that explores the idea of givers, takers, and matchers — and how those who give the most often lose the hardest, but sometimes also win the most, in the long run. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt smart, capable, and thoughtful — yet somehow always a step behind. For those who are tired of choosing softness in a hard system, but still aren’t ready to let it go. Maybe kindness isn’t a losing game. Maybe it’s just a longer one.

I think it's really hard for grown ups living in 2026, to be fully conscious, have the awarness, creatical thinking without these tools, which is 1. Smartphone 2. Computer 3. Internet 4. AI, myself included of course. And I had so much emotional burden to organise my plans like the full time job + extra big-scale project that I'm recently working on. And I became even more  dependent on AI cus simply, it's so helpful and intelligent!  I'm sure there's lot of people out there who has a similar concern about the modern technology, and hope our listeners enjoyed this week's episode. & of course, will have an excellent weekend! :D

Everytime big or small of things happen to me, it's hard to get rid of the feeling that 'uncertainty is overwhelming' but after I encountered one specific episode of the podcast, <School of Greatness>, I came upon with a expression, "Apprecitation of Uncertainty" So sorry I couldn't find a link of that episode, but bascially she was trying to say that people should have more apprecitation of uncertainty because life of full of uncertainties and unexpected moments. So rather than being annoyed or neglecting it, apprectiating is the key to accept what's happening to you and to be able to figure out the next step.    Hope you liked the episode! Thanks for listening and hope to see you again soon! :)

One of my favourite things about my life is that I have amazing group of friends. They make me want to be a better person for them, they make me laugh, they entertain me, they makes me cry when I need a really good cry. My experience of friendship has changed darastically from adolescence to adult years. And personally I loved adult friendships compare to my adolescence friendships and I wanted to share my thoughts about that. Also, I wanted to share about my 3 rules of friendship that helped me alot to make new friends and maintaining old friends of course. And those are... Don’t get too close too quickly.. If you open up too much, overshares, it’s very unlikely that friendship will last in a long run Expect nothing from them. When you’re giving/prividing something do it without expecting a reply or expect it will return Someone who stays will stay, but someone who will leave will leave no matter how hard you try People comes and goes. Reality hurts but it’s okay Thank you so much for listening again, and happy new year! best of wishes and sending lots of love! :)

As a person who were always called as a 'bright kid' a 'positive/optimisstic' one for almost all of my life, I've discovered that those who are bright or the opposite personality is a perennial trait. I started to feel like maybe some people are born happy or born sad. Which means that having such perosnality is highly inherited. It sounds absolutely unfair, but as I searched for a scientific proof of them It turns out it really was true.  Although, I wanted to write down my own mantra of 'how to stay positive ALL THE DAMN TIME' whenever I feel down and depressed. And those are Keep reminding the things you have that you should never take it as granted The more you’re in trouble in life, be nicer to people around you Just like bad days has came, good days are coming for sure, 100% Remember all the shitty things that happend to you, and see how you’ve coped with all that and became who you are right now. Believe that you’re capable of recovering ANY kind of adversity Just let it be… just let it happen. You’ll be fine   Hope you've enjoyed this episode, and again, those who are listening in 2026, then happy new year!!  Again, thank you so so much for listening :D

Merry Christmas! While I was journaling and writing new year's resolutions in the cafe, on Christmas day, I've decided I wanted to do an episode about the lessons I had learned in 2025.  2025 was both tough and amazing year. And it taught me so many lessons that I'm gonna share with you in this episode.    Being unemployed for 8 months was depressing and it gave many lessons like I’m not capable of being content with life when I’m not working. Whatever the industry I’m working, I NEED to work for my mental health. Also, anyone who is working is absoloutely beautiful, regardless of where you’re working, you’re position there, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL Having a sensible, suppportive, unproblematic coworker is such a blessing. You can tolerate the work itself. But you can barley cope with humans who aren’t mature enough to work with other human beings. Money can be almost everything in this crazy capitalistic world where we’re living in. I always hated it when grown ups being obssessed with money. But sadely and unevitable I became one of them lol. Having finacial issue is so emotionally drainig and depressing. And it’s even an embrassing to share this issue even with your friend since being poor can be seem pitty and powerless. Never sacrafice your physical & emotional health to money. Yes I’ve already admitted that money means almost everything in this modern world. But damn, it’s never as important as your body and brain. Even you’re going through hardest time of your life, always give yourself a chance and time to enjoy life. Even the most small, stupid thing can make you happy, and if you don’t give up on that little joy in life, you can overcome anything without being mean to yourself. Happiness doesn’t require lot of things anyway tbh Your relationship with yourself really projects your relationship with others. Be nice to yourself. Be kind to yourself. Don’t stop telling yourself that you’re doing fine, and you’re capable of doing anything. You should be your own best friend and best partner. You can keep your health with the most boring, simple, well known tactics. 1. Eat well. 2. Excercise reguarly. + have meaningful connection with people you love. I hope everyone had a great christmas day, gonna have a peacful Christams holidays. Hope we can see you soon next week too! Thanks for listening again :)   Merry Christmas! x

"Your success in life higly depends on how wisely you spend your time alone" What my coworker said to me on the other day clicked my head and it made me look back to myself in the past where I couldn't find happiness and stability in myself. I was constantly looking for someone to be around me, listens to me talking, to support me even tho I knew they weren't worth of my time and effort. I've worked on myself to be 'happily alone' since then, and honestly I'm still working on it and it's still hard. But now I'm finding myself to gradually improve and getting more support and love from myself not the others.  In this episode, I've shared with my personal experience of coping lonliness, finding way to wisely spend my time alone. At the end, all I want is that I want to be someone who chooses me, who always prioritise myself. But of course, not in the selfish way.   Thank you so much for listening again! Hope we can see you soon too :D

Since I've been reading 'The Let them Theory' by Mel robbins, I just loved her authenticity being honest about her past self. Being a bad parent, jealous friend, annoying wife not being able to be consistent and procrastinates. So that motivated me to reveal about my failures and mitakes in my life. But while I was talking today, I realised those failures lead to my life, myself right now which I'm very proud of. They were my teachers to make me more improve, motivate me to work on myself. Exposing such failures and mistakes in my life in public is frankly embrassing, but I felt absolutely liberating and content while recording because now I know that I've never gave up or quit on myself. This episode consists of very personal anecdotes but I hope it'll make you feel better about your failures and mistakes in your life as well.  Again, thank you so much for listening!

One of the most shocking experiences of aging is that you DO change. The way you think, the way you used to think about that person, that circumsatances... also, things that you thought it is important. In this episode, I shared with my past obsessions the things that I used to believe is important but not anymore. Looks, Friends, Unnecessary worries about the future, job titles... And now, I wonder about what myself, 10 years from now on, will think about the things that NOW I think it's important.    Thank you for listening! 

Since I becamse a full time job worker, I couldn't stop questioning about Korean work ethic and how Korean ppl are handling jobs, working style in general. And while I was talking to my several international friends, Koreans seem to have very little holidays, less generosity when it comes to individual's life/health conditions, having to work till late time became common sense in some industry... etc So I wanted to share my experience and thoughts about this topic with you. Hope you've enjoyed! Thanks for listening again :D

Born and raised in Jeju Isalnd, been living in the UK 2 yrs, 1 yr in Japan... Most of my life was in an Island.  My foundamental indentity, personality is mostly came from my identity as 'Jeju person' even more than South Korean. For me, I can't imagine what kind of person would I turn out if I hadn't lived in Islands.  In this episode, I talk about my life was an Islander, how I started my own podcast, and just a little bit about my life in general :)