The “Seoul” I grew up in is the capital of South Korea, a city dense with infrastructure and population. The “Pohang” where I spent my university years is a rural coastal city in the southern part of the country. My alma mater, POSTECH, is a small, highly selective institution with about 300 students per class. Because I spent my college years in a tightly knit and somewhat isolated community, I often found myself thinking deeply about the group I belonged to.
After about three years, I found myself experiencing life in Seoul again. The change in geography and community brought me a wave of stimulation I hadn’t felt in a while. In Pohang, where I had spent my university years and grown deeply accustomed to the rhythm of life, I felt a sense of stability, but also a quiet stagnation. Beyond career matters, I began to wonder: where should I spend my twenties? What kind of place would best shape this period of my life? It seemed that leaving behind a comfortable environment and placing myself in a new, more challenging one might be good for me.
Three people’s words left a strong impression on me. They are people who give me rare insights I can’t easily find elsewhere.
- One of them, who has stayed in Pohang continuously, told me that everything changed after entering graduate school. Even though the space was the same, their circumstances had shifted, and suddenly, everything felt different. For that person, the same place had become something entirely new.
- Another person, who had lived in the U.S. for a long time and is now in Seoul, said that Korea feels far too small compared to America. It seems that the kind of bold and ambitious people they used to meet there are harder to find here.
- The last person said that although they live in Seoul, they refuse to be carried away by the inertia and atmosphere of the city. They live in Seoul, but not of Seoul.
To me, Seoul feels fresh compared to Pohang. To another, even the same Pohang feels like a different place. And to yet another, even Seoul can feel suffocating. Some people, through strong will and a firm sense of self, can remain unaffected by their environment.
In the end, everything is relative. There is no absolute right or wrong, no universal “better” or “worse.”