Missing,

“Found it!” Have you ever experienced overwhelming gratitude when you finally found the objects or someone that you thought you lost forever? When you lose something, you start to realize how important that thing was and tell yourself that you will take very good care of it when you have them back. This thought motivated me to create this project, “Missing.” If I am missing, would I be missed? In what capacity?

Since I live by myself in the States as an international student, I often feel lonely and isolated. Through this project, I wanted to find my worth and get an opportunity to look back at my life by tracking my four years of life in the States. Hoping to define myself as a “meaningful” and “worthy” person by being missing. I set myself as an investigator of a missing case, “Missing: Soovin Choi,” and tracked Choi’s google drive, google maps timeline and interviewed her close friends. I went back to the place and took photographs of Choi’s frequently visited and meaningful places.

From this work, I want to remind people that no matter where you are from, there’s always people who love and care for you. Above all, I realized that you will never be lonely or feeling worthless as long as you love and respect yourself. I believe it is a good exercise to have the “missing” experience once in your life. Remember you are worth it to live no matter what.