September 2022
This month's voice:
Lisa MacIntyre-Park,
"Rest, Recharge, and Reward: Creative Connections with Community and Self"
Introduction
Lindsay Herron
Editor, KOTESOL Voices
I've always admired how deftly Lisa MacIntyre-Park juggles all her responsibilities, navigating her manifold roles: teacher, business owner, mother, KOTESOL national secretary, chapter officer.... I was even more impressed when I discovered she also spent time cultivating new artistic skills, from calligraphy to painting! Her artwork has been featured on the cover of The English Connection (Winter 2020), and she now offers calligraphy workshops, effectively interweaving her many skills, passions, and talents. In this month's KOTESOL Voices, Lisa reflects on how her creative endeavors—especially calligraphy—have enriched her life, helping her to slow down, center, relax, and connect. Perhaps our readers, too, will be inspired to embark on their own creative paths!
Rest, Recharge, and Reward: Creative Connections with Community and Self
By Lisa MacIntyre-Park
I’ve always loved relaxing on summer break and then experiencing that wonderful "fresh start" feeling of back-to-school in September. Now that I work year-round teaching at an academy, I feel that it’s important to find that feeling by making time to rest and recharge in everyday life. Taking up a hobby and practicing it daily is a really great way to do this! And it’s even more enjoyable when you can share that hobby with others.
Back when I first came to Korea, social media didn't exist, and I would spend my free time trying to stay in touch with friends and family by writing letters and sending them via snail mail. I felt it vital to make connections here as well and share ideas with others who were older than the children I spent my days teaching.
Although the years have passed, my beliefs remain fairly much the same. I’ve taken up a number of hobbies to fill my free time here, from reading, language exchange, swimming, and meeting others for "chicken night" in the early days to nowadays still reading, ukulele, calligraphy, and organizing community lunches to connect ladies in my province. I feel that connecting with others who share common interests is so important to maintaining a sense of well-being and happiness.
These days my favorite way to rest and recharge while connecting with others and encouraging them to do the same is by teaching calligraphy lessons. A few years back, before the pandemic pretty much ground us to a halt, I was feeling a bit empty and looking for something new to challenge myself in my free time. I thought back to my love of language and writing systems and decided to rediscover my childhood love of calligraphy. Little did I know that there was a modern explosion of brush-pen calligraphy going on in the Western world! I started by looking online and practicing daily, mimicking both the old and new styles I found there. Calligraphy filled the void I had been feeling. I became addicted to that feeling of calm that practicing every spare moment could bring. I’m thankful for the recent exponential growth of online lessons because it allowed me to study modern calligraphy with professionals from all around the world. Now I’ve opened my own community of calligraphy enthusiasts in Korea and share my skills here. Together, we enjoy spreading that feeling of getting something new and exciting in the mailbox—and this snail mail revival gives us the opportunity to recharge ourselves through our creative calligraphy practice while spreading joy to others.
In this hectic world of work stress, social media, and quickity-quick culture, making time to rest is easily put off, and slower, relaxing types of personal connections often take a back seat. What are you doing to recharge in your everyday life? Have you taken up any fun hobbies lately? If you’d like to add some creativity to your day and maybe get a smile when opening your mailbox again, I’d love to connect with you! Now that the pandemic restrictions are loosening up, you can find me at the Silent Book Club (SBC) or KOTESOL meetings. Join me there to recharge with others and build a friendly community together.
About the Author
Lisa MacIntyre-Park holds a B.Ed. (TESL) & B.A. (Hons) from Brock University in Canada and has been teaching English in Korea since 1997. For the past seventeen years, she and her husband have run "I Can!" English Academy in Jeonju, where they enjoy seeing their own children around the halls while teaching in the afternoons. In her free time, Lisa enjoys playing the ukulele and practicing the art of modern calligraphy and teaching it to others. She is an officer of the Jeonju-North Jeolla Chapter of KOTESOL and has been the national secretary for KOTESOL since the autumn of 2019.
