BIOGRAPHY There's not much to tell about the Park family that hasn't already been told a thousand times over. Hailing from South Korea, Byung-ho and Sook-ja Park wanted to give their family all the opportunities America presented them. After a few years, the young married couple put down their roots in California, where they raised one son: Jung-hoon Park, who later met and married another first-generation Korean-American by the name of Mi-sook Gu.

To know Sam's story, it's important to know his family's.

Jung-hoon and Mi-sook dealt with their fair share of obstacles. They were both the children of immigrants who keenly felt an obligation to their family's culture while trying to slowly give into the pull of American society—and all the differences therein. But in the end, they wound up as traditional as ever. Jung-hoon worked as an executive in Long Beach while Mi-sook kept house, and in the meantime, the Parks started trying for a family of their own. It took years of attempts, disappointments and miscarriages before one pregnancy stuck for good, and Samuel Taeyang Park was happily ushered into the world on a cold spring morning.

For the most part, Sam grew up happy and well-loved by his attentive parents. They encouraged his growing interest in science—particularly his fascination with the universe—and delighted in every small accomplishment, whether he scored the winning goal in a soccer game or came home bearing childish drawings with gold stars stuck to the corners. And really, Sam loved his parents just as much as he loved them.

But teenage years weren't all that easy on the entire Park family. When Sam was hormonal and grumpy and finally getting over his embarrassing crackling voice, his father was promoted at the company. And that promotion came with a cross-country move to New York City. At 15, Sam had to say goodbye to his friends and the entire life he'd built in California, and he begrudgingly transferred schools just before his sophomore year of high school. It was a difficult time for all (but mostly Sam, who insists to this day that his parents ruined his life by moving).

Sam might have had a bad attitude, but that never reflected in his grades. Always earning high marks, it was clear to anyone that Samuel was an intelligent kid who'd likely go far if he applied himself in the right ways. And he did. His love of astronomy, of fixing things with his hands, of his country (because as the grandson of South Korean immigrants, Sam was instilled with a peculiar sense of patriotism from birth) afforded him an opportunity to enlist in the United States Air Force, and so enlist he did.

After basic military training and technical training in space systems operations, Sam was stationed in California at the Vandenberg AFB, where he worked on space lift missions for the duration of his six-year contract. (It sounds a lot more exciting than it was; Sam spent most of his time at a desk in an air conditioned building, not traveling through time and space like a badass.)

When his contract was over, Sam chose to be discharged rather than re-enlist for the simple reason that he longed to go home. His parents weren't getting any younger, and with limited visits home, he thought it was best that he get out while there was still time. In 2012, Sam moved back to Long Island to be with his family and enrolled in the mechanical engineer masters program at NYU to continue his education. There weren't a lot of opportunities in the city for a veteran with a degree in space studies, after all, and Sam wanted to make himself as marketable as possible now that he was adjusting to civilian life.

He's only recently completed the masters program, and following his commencement, Sam took a job as a mechanical engineer at an engineer company in New York City. He still regularly visits his parents multiple times a week, even if he does now have his own apartment in Inwood.