# A Long-Awaited Return: Reconnecting with Teenage Self in Sorokdo

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## Author

- **Name**: 앙이
- **Username**: @id_erin161

## Content

It was the first time in thirteen years that I finally took a break.
And the very first place I chose to go was Sorokdo—
a place I had longed to return to after twenty years.
It was where I had once volunteered as a teenager,
and I wanted to meet that pure, unguarded version of myself again.

Back then, the journey was never easy.
I had to change buses three or four times, then take a ferry,
and even after that, walk almost an hour to finally arrive.
Leaving in the morning meant not getting there until evening.
Now, with a bridge built, the way has become so much easier.

On the bus to Sorokdo, by some twist of fate,
the man who ended up in the seat beside me
was the very oppa I hadn’t seen in twenty years.
What were the odds of that?
Looking at the shabby dorms,
I remembered how I once wondered if we might have to sleep outdoors.
And the mosquitoes by the sea—
who could have guessed how vicious they would be?
These little questions brought back the girl I used to be,
and the memories I thought I had left behind.

Could my seventeen-year-old self have imagined this?
That twenty years later, I would find myself back on this island?
I still think about the knitted blanket Marianne and Margaret
had made with their own hands, the one I lost.
Even now, the thought of it brings tears to my eyes.
It wasn’t just a blanket—it carried my innocence,
and their warmth, woven into every stitch.

Not long ago, I came across an app called VMS.
To my surprise, fragments of my volunteer hours were recorded there.
Many were missing, but still—
seeing my time in Sorokdo preserved in numbers and records
felt almost uncanny.
It was as if the seventeen-year-old me had reached across two decades
to whisper to my present self: I’m still here.
Those footprints have never disappeared.
They live on inside me,
and perhaps it was those very memories
that led me back here again.
The realization was both wondrous and overwhelming.

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## Learning Language

**English**

## Metadata

- **Posted**: 8/17/2025
- **View on HelloTalk**: [https://www.hellotalk.com/moments/TNFMExWzqOyjHD.md](https://www.hellotalk.com/moments/TNFMExWzqOyjHD.md)

## Engagement

- **Comments**: 1
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