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One autumn day, when I was still slowly adapting to my life on Jeju Island after moving there in July 2018, a senior colleague of mine and I decided to tour the east side of the island. Driving around Seopjikoji, we could not take our eyes off the unusually clean sea and its horizon. We took the Pyoseon-Sehwa Coastal Road home right as the sun was setting. As I watched the yellow sky, I deeply felt the beauty of the sunset. While my colleague drove tirelessly, I repeatedly exclaimed, “Wow, the sunset is really beautiful!” I had often seen the sun set at the end of my workdays. One evening when I was on duty, I saw the sunset paint the sky red; I rushed to the second-floor terrace and watched the sky burn for quite some time.

In order to appreciate Jeju’s ever-changing sea and sunset views, I have recently purchased chabak (car picnic) supplies. I have yet to go on a proper overnight chabak as it has rained or stormed every weekend since, but I have had the pleasure of going to Gangjeong Village early in the morning with a lunchbox full of gimbap to watch the people fishing there. Even though I love the sea, this was the first time that I had sat and watched the water for such a long time. As I became immersed in the coastal scenery, I felt my heart become lighter, as if the waves were carrying away what had been bothering me.

Before coming to Jeju, I cannot remember ever appreciating the beauty of nature, such as the sky, mountains, and trees, or being particularly impressed by it. I wonder if the Jeju sunset touches me because it is nature, uninterrupted — not a sliver of the setting sun glimpsed between buildings or twilight falling on a crowded beach. When I was in my early 20s, my senior colleagues often told me, “When you get older, you will see the beauty of nature. You have to age to understand what we are saying. You don’t know these things now because you are young.” Only now do I understand what they were saying then. I wonder if I have finally become an adult.

Written by Park Hyo Jeong, Senior Program Officer, Resource Management Department

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