The Wanderer's Curse

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A Korean mother runs off to Alaska, sparking a greater season of wandering. Could her daughter be destined for the same? When Jennifer Hope Choi first stumbled upon the "curse" known as yeokmasal—an allegedly inheritable affliction causing one to roam farther and farther from home—she immediately consulted her mother. "Oh yeah," Umma quipped. "I have that." Technically this wasn't a revelation. Since 2007, the no-nonsense open-heart surgery nurse had moved suddenly from the Golden State to the Last Frontier, shuttling over the next decade through seven states. For much of her adulthood, Choi had fancied herself nothing like her immigrant mother, late-blooming vagabond spirit and all—until life in Brooklyn imploded, spurring her to relocate to South Carolina and reckon with startling truths. Artmaking had left her in debt, single, and jobless. Questions hovered, gathering ragged like fractus clouds: Was it time to give up writing?