KBS pre-interview

Today I went to KBS studios to do a pre-interview for their TV show “I miss that person” that helps locate missing people in Korea.
(IE birth family members.)

I wish this birth family search stuff didn’t have to be so intense. I wish it could be lighthearted and easygoing and no big deal. But there’s really no way it could ever be that way just by the nature of what it is.

Instead, in this situation, I met someone for the first time ever (translator) and in just a few seconds, after the basic introductions (name, maybe age, etc.) I tell him my whole birth family search story, a totally personal/ intimate thing. Then I never see him person again. It’s strange.

When I first met my translator he told me he was nervous. He really wanted to help me. I told him he shouldn’t be nervous because I wasn’t nervous and if he was nervous he would make me nervous.

The interview itself was as expected. In a few minutes I had to memorize a script telling my basic information: my Korean name, American name, where I was born, that I was looking for my birth family, where I was born, how old I was when I was adopted. Then they asked me a bunch of questions about when I came to Korea, how long I’ll be here for, what I was doing here, etc. They asked me a lot of questions about the search I have been doing thus far.

I’d brought all my documents with me, so they saw those. And I had photos of my life so I showed them those too. They want scanned copies of those for the TV show.

After it was over I felt exposed. I didn’t know what to do with myself. “Now where do I go? What do I do?” I ended up phoning and meeting up with another adoptee who has met her birth family.

I might not be able to get on the show because the opportunity might not come up until after I’ve left Korea. We shall see.