The
Gateway
Korean woman
Yong Chong Rastorfer, 46, a Korean woman came to the United States 23 years ago, wishing to make great fortune in a huge ambition.
Back in South Korea, she was a Tae Kwon Do instructor and dreamed about being a strong policewoman someday. Unfortunately, the dream was broken when she was told that her height wasn’t enough. Packing all the stuff, including her dream, Rastorfer went on the way to the United States, the country full of freedom in her mind.
When she was teaching Tae Kwon Do in this new land, an American who was also learning this martial art met her and married her. The couple once dreamed about owning a very fancy martial art studio, but the burden of raising three kids pressured them to earn money as soon as possible.
Accidentally, Rastorfer discovered her talent in hair cutting and decided to take it as a career. She won a hair salon, named Christina’s Hair Salon, in Columbia. It is the only Asian hair service in this area at that time.
She remembered that, at first, it is hard to running the business because most American customers passed by her salon when they noticed that she was an Asian. However, people from Asian countries like Korea, China, Thai, Japan and Indonesia support Rastorfer a lot in the beginning. She was grateful to their help deeply and donated a lot to Asian associations later.
Because Rastorfer learned to make different hairstyles for both Asians and Americans, gradually some Americans who are willing to have a try found out that she was really good at hair cutting. They strongly recommended to their friends. This word-of-mouth publicity helped Rastorfer open her door to more Americans.
Rastorfer ran the salon family-oriented, many customers come to her salon with the whole family. This salon is also a good meeting place for Rastorfer and her kids. She usually bring them to help her with work. She wants her kids to know the importance of hard working by her action instead of words.
Nowadays, Christina’s Hair Salon was given a five-star evaluation online, so more people come because of the high recommendation. Rastorfer said that never ever did she thought about doing hair salon one day, and it is still unbelievable to her. The dream of earning a big fortune seems failed, but Rastorfer said that she felt so happy to bring beauty to others, and she was so grateful to all that she had gone through that makes her a truly rich person.
