Joel Kim Booster

But you have to understand that my parents were like –

You know, my dad was the first person in his family to go to college.

You know, he had the first person in his family to have a middle class job, which was, you know, and the first person, you know, the sort of right at the edge of people understanding that a middle class job didn't actually support a middle class existence anymore.

My mom was a nurse.

You know, they were very practical people and they like we were not rich growing up.

We were a paycheck to paycheck family for the entirety of my growing up.

And I think my family was just really practical about like, you know, they didn't want me to pursue something that wouldn't be able to I wouldn't be able to support myself doing.

How does that come?

That's like an early stand up bit.

And it's true.

I mean, I was adopted when I was a baby from Korea, likely stolen.

And I I just like being homeschooled, growing up in an all white community.

I didn't meet another Korean person my age until I was 13.

I just didn't know, I didn't understand race in the same way that a lot of kids do because it wasn't something that they talked to us about.

Like my mom, I knew I was adopted, but they never focused on the transracial part of the adoption as much as, you know, other families might have.

And I remember I was at a family reunion in Birmingham, Alabama, where most of my mom's side of the family is from.

and currently lives.

And we were taking a composite photo of the entire, of my mom's side of the family.

And I just remember being like four or five and being like, what's going on here?

This is, something's different.