I woke up this morning to the news that Pokerstars' Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) will be heading to Seoul, South Korea, in March next year. This is really exciting for me as I was born in Korea but have never really seen the place at all. I guess this would be a good time to go into that a little since some people often wonder why this guy with the thick Aussie accent looks a bit Jackie Chan'esque.

I was adopted at a very young age (infancy) by Australian parents. This is something that once I reveal to people they are unsure how to respond. People are always inquisitive but never want to ask the question that is seemingly on their mind; "have you ever tried to find your real parents". They always get to it eventually once they see I am comfortable discussing it. So here goes.

I was born in Pusan, South Korea. As far as I know I was placed into foster care from birth and to this day only know my mothers name. The reason for this is that I only have one name on my birth certificate, my biological mothers. This does have its advantages because I am 50% South Korean and 50% whatever the hell I want to be on any given day! To address the question that most people ask... No, I have never had any desire whatsoever to track down my biological parents.

Why would I want to? I have had an amazing upbringing in a country that is amazing and a lifestyle that is totally free. My parents are the ones I consider my mother and father. Being a Dad myself now I really understand that being a family and having the bond between child and parent is something that is developed by spending time together. Sure there is a natural bond with your child from birth, but the real bond comes when you spend time together and watch/help each other learn and grow. It's hard to explain I guess and I'm probably not 'technically' correct here but it's my blog, therefore my opinion stands .

The next question people ask is "have you ever wanted to go back?", and my answer to this has changed over time. You have to understand that I have been brought up as an Australian. I have trouble thinking of myself as Asian most of the time because all of my family are really Australian in the cultural sense and therefore that is how I am as well. I often joke that I am a terrible Asian, not eating seafood, not eating most Asian foods, not speaking any Asian languages etc etc. In fact, the only thing really Asian about me is my appearance. Consequently, my answer to the question was always "meh, not really". This is because I never saw a reason to go back there. If I was going to travel I wanted to go to Hawaii, or Fiji, or somewhere interesting like Egypt! Why on earth would I want to go to Asia?

I also always wanted to see my own country before I went traveling abroad. I am a big believer in this, especially because we live in such a naturally diverse and beautiful country. It is really amazing when you travel around Australia and just take in how great this place really is. But I am getting off topic and will save my favourite things to do and see in Australia for a separate blog.

So my answer to the question of if I wanted to go back to Korea has changed over time. While I never saw any reason to go when I was younger (even though I was given the option), I most certainly do now. For a few years it has been something I have wanted to do for myself really. Kinda selfish reasons, but I guess as you get older things like your background and the culture behind it becomes more important to you. I want to see where I came from and to a certain extent what my life could have been like. This is probably weird to people because it is so easy to access your history and where you came from because it is often where you grew up, yet for me it is quite the trip.

I am comfortable talking about all of this openly and hold no ill feelings towards my biological parents at all. I don't really care too much about the reasons why they gave me up or anything like that. Personally, I could never do it. You couldn't take my child off me for anything in the world, let alone me give him up. Yet in saying that I am sure there were good reasons for it and totally understand that there is a divide between Australian culture and social acceptability, and Asian culture and social acceptability.

If anything I am grateful for the life they gave me by giving me up, because I am positive that I have had a better upbringing and life than I could have in Korea (I don't mean this offensively to Korea or Koreans, just a general opinion based on my own upbringing here). I am extremely grateful to my parents for giving me the life and upbringing I have had. There is not a thing in the world I would change if given the opportunity.

So that is me and my background . As you can probably tell from the tone of the post, there is a reason for me to be excited about APPT Seoul. I get an opportunity to go there and do what I do best (spew like a monkey in a live tourny), yet at the same time will get to fulfill something I have thought about for the past few years. Really looking forward to it!

Hope you guys are all doing well!

Matt

(Don't feel this is appropriate time to update poker/other poker related things so I will do another blog tomorrow for that stuff)

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