Finally free from evil, eerie North Korea.

Stayed with my friend’s family in South Korea.

“I was unable to understand any English.”
I worked hard to learn,
Studied “one new word a day”
I worked hard to live in the free world.
Happy day when I got a job at a school,
As an English teacher.

I worked hard to live in the free world
Worked and schooled day and night.
Hard work paying off,
Life getting better,
Met a beautiful lady, we were married.
I earned a government scholarship from South Korea to an American university.

Mississippi here I come.
Leaving my pregnant wife was hard.
I started my trip to America,
Knowing I would see my wife and baby one day.
I worked hard to live in the free world.

Rode a prop plane for days and days to America,
I felt like I was in a tin can in a blender.
“When you come somewhere, if you are a refugee, you are in some kind of state of shock, it’s almost like a culture shock.”

Worked and schooled day and night
Four long, lonely years after leaving South Korea,
My wife and child arrived.
We worked hard to live in the free world.

My name is Choong, but you can call me John.