AKs really like being first. Nothing wrong with that. Who doesn't like being first in line, first to see a popular show, first to travel to exotic locales or first to be successful?
Every AK group in every country in every city is the first of its kind. And then there are the first conferences and first forums and first panels that feature first-time topics by these organizations run by and for adult AKs. (I used to sit on the board of one.)
To assist adoptees in searching for birth relatives, there have been many firsts. There was the first adoption registry (sort of like matchmaking but to find you a family), the first group in Seoul providing resources and search assistance to AKs living in Korea, and the first memoirs by AK writers who write about their own searches.
I was part of the first large wave of Korean adoptees who returned to Korea to work and live. I contributed to the first anthology edited and written by and for AKs. I recently attended the first-ever transracial adoptee film festival. And it's only a matter of time before we see the first blog by AKs for AKs who now are parents. (Personally, my money's on the first AK to land on Mars and start a commune by and for AKs.)
First-ism is a critical characteristic of our collective identity. Obviously. If we weren't first, what would that make us?
Oh, yeah.
Nobody likes being the alternate. Or the last resort.
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