You can always come back home…
Southern California is not an unfamiliar place to me.
Growing up, almost all my relatives apart from my immediate family basically lived in California, and most still do. Family reunions and vacations led us to SoCal basically once a year. It gave me and my family beaches, oceans, and a variety of Korean food, things not commonly found in the landlocked windswept plains of Oklahoma.
But while it was not unfamiliar, I was a foreigner here. When my family came here to visit, I didn’t really have any friends here. It was not a place I necessarily looked forward to visiting. And it was big and scary. And kind of dirty. And gas was like way too expensive here.
And there were so many Koreans here! I would visit my grandparent’s church, Young-Nak Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, and it was so weird to see so many Koreans. And it was even weirder to meet Koreans in their 30s and 40s not speaking Korean. Where I’m from, in terms of immigration, we’re a few generations behind the West coast.

These were the sorts of experiences I had growing up and traveling around in SoCal.
But now I stand about 15 hours away (give or take) from moving back to the South, the land I’ve known my whole life.
My wife and I got married in July 2016 and we moved to the West coast the following month as sort of a step of faith. I graduated seminary with a Master’s and took an internship and a part time job in California so that I could gain some experience before attempting to take on a full-time ministerial position.
In the first month we were able to find an apartment in Pomona, CA and begin working part time in Ontario while carrying out my internship duties at my church in Brea. Meeting new people is intimidating, especially in a new place where you feel some familiarity because everyone looks and talks like you, but feel foreign because you’re not used to being around so many people who look and talk like you.
But immediately our church plugged us in with some people in a small group that we found some kinship with. I joined the church basketball league that gave me a social circle outside of my workplaces (though, yes, they were church people so I knew them, but I didn’t know any of the people we played against). And through our church we were connected with people outside our church in other churches. On top of that, we had friends from seminary who also moved to SoCal around the time we did (shoutout #swbtsla). Being able to meet up with them monthly gave us some familiar soil to plant our roots in.

And with all that, through whatever difficulties and challenges my wife and I faced, we had each other. Our marriage was strengthened through God’s grace and provision. We grew connected to the people here and we felt loved and cared for. We became a family here.
So when people ask me what we are going to miss the most about living here as opposed to living in Texas, I say the most obvious thing:
“The food and weather.”
Which is true.
But when I take the question a little more seriously, of course it’s the people. Of course it’s the people at our small group in Diamond Bar. Of course its the staff at Living Hope Community Church. Of course it’s the Living Hope Prime basketball team. Of course it’s the other interns that I got to learn alongside. Of course it’s my seminary friends from Southwestern Seminary who also moved out here. It’s the community.
No place feels foreign when you have friends and family.

I had lunch with a friend yesterday and we got to talking about moving around for different opportunities and the ups and downs of moving away from home for a new opportunities. He said something very profound that I think I’ll carry as I go from here:
You can’t always leave home to go places and experience new things but you can always come back home.
He was saying that moving from home is hard but if you get a chance to do it, you can always know that you can come back to the place and people you call home who will always be there for you. When he said that, I couldn’t help but think that SoCal was the place my wife and I knew we could always come back to. We know coming back to California only meant we were coming back to a community with open arms ready to take us back. This was our first home as a married couple and so this will, in a sense, always be our home. Transition isn’t easy but it’s a little easier knowing that you have a people to go back to.

With that all being said: SoCal! Pomona! Brea! Living Hope Community Church! SwbtsLA! You were a great place to live and grow and become a family! We will see you soon :)
