My journey on the healer’s path started as a child, in my grandmother’s garden. I have memories of watching her pluck herbs, excavate roots covered in soil, shake husks to free seeds. From a young age, I was taught to understand the earth as a way to connect to our homeland, a blessing to care for, and as one of our greatest providers. These lessons ultimately propelled me to study Sustainable Agriculture and Sociology for my undergraduate at the University of California, Davis. It was at the intersection of Agriculture and Sociology, where I learned about the systems and policies that shape who gets access to nourishment and fresh food, health and quality affordable care, and ultimately, safety to exist in their bodies. These realities oriented me to return to my hometown of Sacramento, to work in the nonprofit sector to promote healthy school lunches in the working-class communities where I grew up. This work was grueling, slow, but immensely valuable - as I learned how deeply communities care for their own health and wellbeing, and how difficult it can be at a systems level, to support that desire for wellness. After 5 years of working in this sector, I found myself surrounded by community organizers, parents, and leaders of all kinds that were burned out and in rough shape. I asked myself, how can we fight for the health and wellbeing of our communities if we cannot take care of ourselves? It was no surprise that at this time in my life, I began to develop chronic eczema that covered my entire body. For years, it impaired my mobility and affected my self esteem in ways that I am still healing from today. At this time in my journey, my physical health and emotional wellbeing were at an all time low. I decided I needed a change, and decided to shift towards work that would reconnect me to the land. It was then that I decided to move to Oakland to pursue a career as a farm manager for a local organization that taught children how to garden and cook within the public school system. For years, this work allowed me to return to the land, work with young people, and share this program model with other public schools and their communities, to learn that we can grow and cook our own medicine. It was during this work, that I met a co-farmer who was deeply passionate about herbal medicine. They encouraged the farm staff to grow medicinal herbs in addition to the vegetables and fruits we grew on our 2 acre farm. I deeply fell in love with the herbal actions, energetics, and science of herbal medicine. Much like growing your own food, herbal medicine opened my eyes to the possibility that we can all grow, make, and administer our own medicine. This reminded me of the times as a child I would spend with my grandmother in her garden, watching her make medicine from the earth. It was no coincidence that at this time, my eczema dissipated drastically. After years of farming, and getting absorbed into herbal medicine, and its impacts on my own health, I decided I wanted to make this my life’s work. It was as soon as I made that decision that the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. My dreams of being with the land and community to make medicine were paused, and I felt lost once again in my path, and within that year my chronic eczema returned and worse than ever. My mother recommended I try acupuncture and Chinese herbs, as nothing my dermatologist or western medicine doctor provided was helping. I’ll never forget my first visit to my acupuncturist. She asked me questions that paid attention to my psycho-emotional health, not just my skin condition. She explained that it was all related, and that she wasn’t healing me, but she was administering needles to my body, to help it find its own balance again. She proceeded to treat me, and I remember laying in the dark room alone, with needles in my body, feeling unsure of what was “supposed” to happen. It was within minutes that I realized I was being gently oriented towards meditation, and surrender. I didn’t know what was going to happen because of these needles, but I trusted my decision to pursue my own healing, the power of my own body to find its balance again, and allowed myself to rest. It was the deepest rest I’d ever had. I was so deeply impacted by not just the efficacy of the medicine, but the holistic relationship with my practitioners, how I was able to harness the power of the earth to make medicine, and how I was taught the act of faith and surrender through acupuncture. I didn’t know it at the time, but the pandemic provided me a path to this medicine, and it ultimately brought me to where I am today - a 2nd year student at Dongguk University, Los Angeles, studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. The road to this path has been windy, and at times, unclear. But as it stands today, I am entering a lifetime’s practice of healing as an Acupuncturist, with a deep reverence and relationship to the earth and its medicine. It is with my background in community organizing, and as the child of immigrants that I have a commitment to use my knowledge to make healing accessible to all, regardless of their socio-economic or immigration status. And finally, it is with my roots as a Korean woman, that I plan to carry out the tradition of nourishing and caring for my community with the generations of knowledge and wisdom I carry in my body. I would be so grateful to earn this scholarship, to help alleviate some of the financial burden of this degree. Thank you for this opportunity to share my vision for wellness, and how my journey has led me to choose the path of a healer.