Emotions, Unfulfilled Dreams, & More: Some thoughts on 'Creed III'

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Emotions, Unfulfilled Dreams, & More: Some thoughts on 'Creed III'

I should admit–this movie had not been on my radar to see at all. Sure, I had seen it around here and there; but the title didn’t mean as much to me as it would to someone who is avid Michael B. Jordan fan (considering that this film marked his directorial debut), or to someone else who enjoyed growing up following the Rocky franchise (I actually didn’t know the Creed trilogy was born from the ‘Rocky’ movies until later). Despite this, I somehow found myself among the moviegoers in theaters to see it on its opening weekend. I had no background or expectations going in–but I was surprised that I quite enjoyed the movie, namely for some themes that it engaged with that I wanted to share my thoughts on here.

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Finding New Hobbies As An Adult

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Finding New Hobbies As An Adult

I don’t really have any hobbies.🙇🏽‍♀️

I was forced to face the music on this recently due to two things. One of such being dating apps–because there’s no escaping the dreaded questions of “What are your hobbies?” or “What do you do in your free time?” The other thing that made me realize my lack of hobbies was living in a different country, in the middle of nowhere. I’ve had previous extended stays outside of the US; but during my other travels, I was usually in big cities, where it was easy to find random things to fill up my time. But while residing in the mountainous northern countryside of South Korea–far from the city and having pretty few opportunities to interact with others (as my area basically comprised of children, soldiers, and elderly folks)–I realized: I don’t have anything concrete that I like to do.

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Life During COVID-19 in South Korea (Seoul)

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Life During COVID-19 in South Korea (Seoul)

For a while now I’ve resided in South Korea--thousands of miles away from my hometown in the southeastern United States. And while these two places usually do things in different ways (given cultural, linguistic and infrastructure differences), the way life seems to be comparing across these two countries has become especially deviant today, in mid-2020.

If you’ve consumed any form of media, you’ve probably heard South Korea floating through international news quite a bit this year. And it had nothing to do with k-dramas or BTS, and everything to do with COVID.

I’m gonna assume you already know most of the rundown, but I’ll also sum it up shortly: Christian cult caused a massive spike in the spread of cases in Feb 2020, government took big steps with testing and contact tracing. No lockdown, yet the country experienced an excellent reduction in cases and deaths in less than 12 weeks.

That gives kind of the bird’s-eye view of things, from the public health standpoint. But of course public health doesn’t exist in a bubble, separated from the rest of society. Thus in so many countries, lockdown and social distancing has also drastically changed the rules of social life as well.

So given the good marks of how the country managed the COVID crisis, what does daily and social life look like now in South Korea?

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