My Journey through Editorship of Korean Philately

I have been asked to share my journey to becoming Editor Emeritus of Korean Philately, and I’m happy to do so. I became a stamp collector at age 8 when living in London, Ontario, Canada. My cubmaster was a stamp collector and thought that I should become one, as well. He had a stamp album that had a world collection with several stamps for each country already inserted into the album, along with a few envelopes with stamps on paper. I saved money I had earned doing little chores and would go to the dime store to buy stamps, 1,000 for $1 in an orange bag. There were lots of duplicates. Stamp clubs were still popular at school; I would take my duplicates and during recess those of us who were collecting would trade stamps, one for one, though if there was a stamp that we knew to be more valuable, we would negotiate a different ratio. As a result of these activities, I earned my collector’s badge.

I continued to collect stamps, mainly by asking friends, neighbors, pen pals, utility companies, and whoever else I could think of to give me any stamps that they received. Many of my collector friends began to give up collecting as they entered high school, but I continued. I was fascinated by all I was learning about history, literature, music, biographies, science, and whatever other theme was on the stamps. From my pen pals, I developed a great interest in international cultures and to dream of international travel.