Young Ju Park Timeline and Summary

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• Some unnamed person teaches Young Ju to brave the ocean's waves. Sound insignificant? Just you wait.
• Young Ju finds out she's going to Mi Gook (America) and gets a "Mi Gook girl" perm in preparation for the trip.
• Once in America, she and her parents live with Gomo and Uncle Tim. Unfortunately, she figures out that Mi Gook isn't heaven and there's no Harabugi or Halmoni there.
• But there is school, and lo and behold it's actually not bad.
• Her parents fight about moving out of Gomo's house and to a ghetto apartment. Apa gets mean.
• But things get happy when Park Joon Ho, a.k.a. the new baby boy, is born… that is, things get happy for everyone but Young Ju.
• Young Ju begins to notice that her brother—even though he's growing into kind of a bratty kid—gets special treatment, especially from Apa, for being a boy.
• Joon Ho and Young Ju try to save a baby bird, but after a little while it dies.
• Young Ju's going into her teen years, which means she's extra-embarrassed by her mom, especially when her mom pulls out her jar of pennies to pay for things. So she wants to try and win the lottery, but she doesn't.
• Apa takes Young Ju to get her green card renewed, but it doesn't go well with the green card officer because Apa can't manage his anger.
• Halmoni dies, but no one, including Apa, can go see her because she's in Korea and the Parks are clearly not flush with cash. Even though Young Ju's broken up about Halmoni's death, she tries to comfort Apa, who's really broken-up.
• Young Ju finds Uhmma tending to her scary wounds after another one of Apa's beatings—it's not a happy sight, let's just say.
• Uhmma takes Young Ju and her brother to church, where Young Ju witnesses her mother deep in prayer while everyone else is singing.
• Young Ju wins a major academic prize for being the best student at her school, but no one in her family goes to the ceremony. Instead she's with her BFF Amanda's family, who drop her off at the wrong house because she doesn't want anyone to know where she really lives.
• Apa beats up Young Ju for hanging out with Amanda and lying about it, and then he starts on Uhmma for trying to save Young Ju.
• Young Ju calls 9-1-1 and gets Apa thrown in jail for the night, but only for a night because Uhmma refuses to press charges.
• Uhmma gives Young Ju the silent treatment for calling the po-po on Apa but eventually comes around.
• Apa goes back to Korea while Young Ju, her mother, and brother stay in America.
• They get a new house (take that, Apa) right before Young Ju heads off to college.
• Uhmma, though, does the nice thing and tells Young Ju that it was Apa who taught her to jump into waves and be brave (mystery solved).
• At some point in the future, Young Ju and her mother walk along the beach and reflect on Uhmma's long, difficult, but worthwhile journey.