Author Archives: Dami You

I have a home (First place) in two different places. One is in Seoul, South Korea where I was born and raised and other one is in New York City that I live now. Ironically, though I lived in Seoul longer than here, there are no my personal stuffs anymore in Seoul. Also, although I visit Seoul, with a joy of visiting my hometown, once every two years, I even feel some nameless awkwardness when I sometimes realize that there is no my own space completely in the house. Can I say that the house in Seoul is my first place? Then what about New York where I currently live? I honestly can’t say that this is a home completely for me either. There is no family here, I’m not USA citizen, and more of my close friends are in Seoul. Nevertheless, the reason I can say that this city is my current home as well as my third place is because I am building my life here.

When I think about the things that gave me small joys, while leading a busy life, in the third places, they were the relationships with people that I have built and communications I have had with them. Although I now live alone, I have spent more time with my roommates in New York. They befriended me when I was lonely and were willing to listen to my stories. I believe, through the people I met in the shared space in New York, a completely strange place at the time, I have been able to establish a more stable life for myself here. I also have been keeping in touch with my friend from Denmark I met in a youth hostel 6 years ago. Despite the differences in destinations and places where we live and the fact that we hardly get to see each other, it seems that the Internet and SNS have enabled us to keep in touch each other. I believe the relationships in the third place I have built with the people around me, such as the people at my favorite café, the salad store staff, who remembered my name and gave me macaroon to try, and the middle-aged gentlemen I met at Central park, who gave me small tips on life during a short conversation we had, etc., are making my everyday life more diverse and warm.