The choice made that this post is about was so scary and so out-of-character, but I really think this decision was one of the biggest and best I ever made, and it made me so much more that I would have been otherwise, I'm sure of it.

It was around January after graduation in England, I lived on the third floor of an old house in a poxy box-room with roughly enough room for a bed and a little floor space for the door to open. I had no job and was struggling to find any, even something as benign as a cashier.

The only money I had was grant money left over from my University, which to be fair was a fair amount since I basically never went out to get drunk or went shopping and had basically no social life. I was also for some reason in Lincoln, rather than my home town of Leicester. This is mostly because half my family moved abroad and the other half lived far away in the countryside and I wasn't about to give up my independence so I took over the room from a friend.

There were 5 housemates and I basically hated them all: A girl I semi-dated but was an evil... so and so, a crack addict girl, a pedophile (seriously; convicted), a really promiscuous camp gay guy who kept trying to get me into bed with him, and a regular gay guy who was generally nice but we had nothing in common to even pretend to exchange pleasantries.

I was miserable, i was stressed, my money was running out and I refused to give up, making matters worse. I could certainly have just asked my dad to fly me off to his tropical paradise, or moved in with my mum or anyone really, but the most it came to was calling my friend in tears after breaking down because I passed a Greggs bakery and wanted some pastry but I was 4p short. He lent me £100 if I remember right.

Anyway clearly things were not going well. In fact, in my misery, often locked away in my room hiding from civilisation, my hair started falling out quite substantially. One night I made a giant pile of hair just by running my fingers through it and noticed a startling receding hairline over the period of a week or so. Thankfully that was the only time that happened and my hairline hasn't changed since! (I think).

I had some nights out, like when I was dating that housemate who worked at a bar and I'd pretend to enjoy the boring nature of sitting around exchanging awkward banter to people I shared nothing in common with. I even went to a club with that promiscuous gay guy who would show off how he often turns straight people gay with his charm and he would show me him doing so. But for the most part I just stayed in my room playing Bioshock 2.

My friend, J, was also doing quite badly financially, though he had a job and friends, just terrible spending habits, presumably all on alcohol. He messaged me one night saying we should go and live in South Korea, you can actually teach ESL (English as a second language) with just a degree in any subject. No experience required and the pay is really good.

I liked the idea a lot. J was my only friend at this point, somebody I had known since we were kids. I'd do it if he did it. So we trawled the jobs for a while and soon enough I found one, and they got my details, my CV, my picture and took me on!

_{Woah, this brings back memories. Many hours passed looking through these}

I told James, who told me he doesn't want to do it anymore... Damn.

But this is the moment everything changed

Rather than backing out too, something in my miserable existence made me continue on this path. Come February 25th (I think) I was on a plane to South Korea.

Terrified.

Alone.

21 years old.

_{This street terrified me... so many lights...weird symbols everywhere...}

My first week was mortifying and slowly killing me, but this is what changed everything for the better. it's also around when I first met @hugmug. I'll save that bizarre encounter for another day!