The Difference Between Two Orphans Essay Example for Free

The Difference Between Two Orphans Essay Last week, every newspaper in Korea printed two American names with two Korean faces. But Toby Dawson and Jae Harrell made the newspapers for very different reasons. Every year, Korean orphans are being adopted by American parents. Last year alone, an estimated thousand six hundred and thirty children were taken in from South Korea to America. This is not so surprising, considering that Americans have been adopting orphans from South Korea from a long way back. This is where Toby Dawson and Jae Harrell’s stories begin. Both of them have been born in Korea, and both have left their country when they were adopted by Americans. They both felt loneliness and isolation: suddenly, they found themselves in another country with nobody they knew, with a language they do not understand, and with people who looked so different. They grew up realizing that it was them who looked different in this world of Caucasian people – they were Americans, but their faces revealed their heritage.   We can imagine how they suffered – not only with the fact that they knew they were adopted and were having issues with their identity as to who their biological parents were and where were they and why they were separated from them, but growing up in a different country and being reminded of that fact everyday as they look in the mirror, they must have felt the pang of isolation more vividly. But whatever pain they felt, the similarities they shared ended there. Toby Dawson was born Bong-seok in Pusan, South Korea. His father, Kim Jae-su, was a truck driver. On one fateful day, his mother lost him in the market. By the time his father got home from work, it was already too late to look for him. His father searched for him in the market and nearby places, in different orphanages, but to no avail. Defeated, his father gave up looking for him. But the fates must have smiled at Bong-seok, because soon an American couple, ski instructors Mike and Deborah Dawson. The couple took him to their home in Vail, Colorado. He was three. Toby did not know English, and for the first year that he stayed in the country he had nightmares, screaming in his sleep almost every night. Everything was so different – the culture was different, and he was living with adoptive parents when he knew he used to have parents back in Korea. He struggled with his sense of identity, with being different, with being adopted, with being a minority in this part of the world. He accepted his situation and decided to make the best of it. He attended summer camp for adopted children from South Korea and other Asian countries, and made friends and shared bonds with other children like him who were going through the same ordeal. He learned to ski at a young age, although probably because his parents wanted him to learn how to ski, but eventually skiing became an outlet for his aggression. Toby worked hard on his skiing – he has had his share of accidents and broken bones, but still he keeps at it to become the best in his field. He has competed in the major skiing competitions like the World Cup Circuit, and even won a bronze in the Olympics. He also has not forgotten the pain he endured in his childhood – whenever he has time, he spends it with the kids, volunteering for the summer camp that helped him so much before. It seems that everything is going his way, and the only thing left is to make peace with his past. And after his Olympic fame, Toby finally decided to meet his parents. With his new status, a lot of Koreans came forward to claim him as their own, but genetics has a way of clearing things up, and soon Toby found out who his real father was. Toby and Kim met, together with his younger brother. He did not reproach his father for abandoning him – instead, he even told him: I have been waiting a long time, Father. And Kim was moved and proud to see that despite everything, his son has grown up to be a wonderful man. Toby Dawson’s story is made known to all of America last Tuesday in Oprah. But with all the good fortune that has come his way, it must be remembered that Toby worked hard to make the best out of what life has to offer. He faced life and all its challenges bravely, and for that he is reaping the fruits of his labor. On the other hand, things did not fare as well with Jae Harrell. Adopted when he was a newborn baby by Ruth Harrell and her husband, Toby must have felt isolated just like Toby when he was growing up when he realized that he did not look like his parents, that he looked different. Unlike Toby, Jae took a different path. Whereas Toby spent his time in summer camp to cope with all the things that are happening to him, Jae turned to drugs and alcohol. Whether for fun or consolation or he just needed to forget, Jae’s reliance on alcohol and drugs did him no good, and soon he was on a list for mental health watch. He let remorse and hatred overcome him, and perhaps he felt anger towards his parents in Korea who sent him away, and maybe he felt anger too with the position he found himself in this country, and he had no productive outlet for his aggression. Charged and found guilty of retail theft in November, he was sentenced to three years in jail but was granted parole last January. But he did not stop there. His anger took over him and he ended up killing his mother, the one who adopted him and raised him up. Jae had been charged with battering his mother Ruth a year ago, but the charges were dropped after his mother declined to show up in court. This time, she was not so lucky. After an argument with Ruth, Jae struck his mother with a hammer on the head and then strangled her. He put her in her car and drove her to local school’s parking lot, and checked back if somebody found her. Seeing that the body was not discovered, he drove the car to I-290 and left it there. The car and the body were found by a worker from the Illinois Department of Transportation, and Jae Harrell has been arrested and bail set at $ 300 million. Toby Dawson and Jae Harrell were both orphans, both adopted from South Korea. They both had a difficult time adjusting to their situation here in the United States. However, they led significantly different lives. It was the decisions they made that took them where they are now. Toby’s effort, hard work and optimistic attitude made him a successful skier and gave him happiness. Jae’s negative attitude, his reliance on drugs and alcohol, and his failure to see the good things in life gave him disgrace and this tragic affair. In the end, it does not matter where we are from or what we look like because what matter is what we are inside.