Happy Thanksgiving

The Korean wishes happy Thanksgiving to all Americans. This year, the Korean is thankful for his new wonderful wife, settling into a new place with new friends, and being able to ride out the challenges of the economy.

Thanksgiving is the Korean's favorite holiday, and it is a crying shame that it is slowly turning into a mere bump in the road on the way to Christmas shopping. Thanksgiving is the Korean's favorite holiday because it is one of the most American of holidays -- the holiday for immigrants. The day in which Americans, old and new, share a table to fill their body with a hearty bird native to American land.

On the Thanksgiving Day of 1997 -- some 380 years after the Pilgrims -- the Korean Family arrived at the port of Los Angeles International Airport, full of anticipation for the Land of Opportunity. The Korean Family was greeted by natives, the distant family friends who have lived in the U.S. for decades as Korean Americans. And like a beautiful fugue, the pattern repeated once again; the natives helped the immigrants to get settled in, and begin their lives in the new world.

Thus, Thanksgiving Day is doubly special for the Korean Family. We never miss celebrating it. We always get together as a family and reflect on how we have begun -- and succeeded! -- our decade-plus immigrant life in America. We are thankful for all the great things in our lives, but most of all, we are thankful to be in America. Like the Pilgrims who were grateful for their new lives and new opportunities, the Korean Family is grateful, each and every year, for our own new lives and opportunities.

AAK! will be on a break until next week.

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