Today on the show, Yuliana is joined by Ji Young, the founder of the Tide Film Festival. An attorney turned non-profit executive, producer, writer, speaker and facilitator, Ji is the Founder of DreamMaker DreamDoer DreamSupporter, inc, - 3D, and is the creator, producer and host of the web series ‘Not Your Average’ for KoreanAmericanstory.org. as well as the founder, co-creator, former co-producer and current advisor to ‘$6.99 Per Pound’ podcast. At the age of 3, Ji was adopted from Korea by an Italian and Irish-American family, grew up in upstate New York, and today shares the story of her adoption, the battle with her identity, and the impact of reuniting with her Korean birth family.

Ji begins the conversation by talking about her adoption as the one event that shaped her life’s direction, her childhood growing up as an Asian-American in New York, and how it took 10 years for her to brace herself to meet her birth family after having found them.  She goes on to describe meeting them and the emotions that surfaced, the moment she truly understood the rationale behind her birth mother’s decision, and when she truly forgave her. Ji also delves into how the sense of abandonment impacted her relationships and how she and her husband work to make sure their children feel confident, proud, and love themselves. The episode rounds off with Ji talking about Tide and the one song that describes her life - a super sad song about resilience. A model of resiliency herself, Ji and her story of meeting and overcoming challenges will undoubtedly move and inspire all who listen in today.

Episode Highlights:

-   The event that redirected the course of Ji Young’s life

-   Growing up as an adopted child in New York

-   Why parents should help their children learn about their culture and identity

-   Seeking out her birth family - Ji’s story

-   The week Ji met her birth family

-   The reason why giving Ji up for adoption was necessary

-   The moment of true forgiveness

-   The journey of Ji’s identity

-   Dealing with the sense of abandonment

-   Raising mixed children

-   Ji speaks about her film festival, Tide

-   The one song that describes Ji’s life

Quotes:

“The biggest part of my identity that shapes me the most is the adoptee part of my identity.”

“I didn't have the maturity or the self-awareness or the grasp on identity enough to understand just how difficult it was for me.”

“You should do what you can to help your child feel good about their identity, whether it's black, Asian, brown, whatever it is.”

“A lot of people think of it as ‘Oh, you find them and ta-da it’s done’, when really,  it's just the beginning of a pretty difficult journey.”

“I have twins. When they were turning three, the age that I was when I was adopted, I would stay up nights just bawling my eyes out being, like, ‘I cannot imagine putting my child on a plane right now.’”

“This was the first time I was able to realize that before my story was my mom's story and whatever brought her to that point where she had to make this awful decision, I was finally able to have empathy for that.”

“This was my fate in this lifetime.”

“Because there is this innate fear of abandonment that we kind of have to struggle with our entire lives, I can see, when I'm being objectively self-reflective enough, how that plays out in my relationships, and not just romantic relationships in the past, but all relationships.”

“My mission in life since I was pregnant with my children has been to make sure they feel good about the skin that they're in, to feel good about themselves, to feel confident and proud, and to love themselves.”

Links:

Phoenix Tales Homepage

Phoenix Tales on Instagram

Phoenix Tales on Spotify

Phoenix Tales on Facebook

Ji Young’s Instagram

Tide Film Festival Instagram

Tide Film Festival Homepage