NEW INSIGHT TOWARDS GOD

     One day, a girl found herself confined to a white square room, entangled with IV drips on the back of her hand. The girl’s days full of happiness abruptly stopped, and she became unable to eat, sleep, and even walk due to physical weakness, being hospitalized for the first time in her life. This girl had been busy all her life, studying and competing in competitions. Such a purposeless hospital life therefore seemed very strange to her, and the emptiness that came from doing nothing was so stressful that she felt the futility of being. On Sunday morning, when the sun shone, a man left a piece of paper on her desk with the hospital church schedule. The crooked letters written on this single piece of paper were a great opportunity to change her.

     Having lived a busy life without observing the Sabbath, I realized that I had been neglecting my relationship with God. I began to listen to the hymns instead of wandering around, and spent time thinking deeply about what God had given me. The book ‘The Purpose Driven Life' served as a stimulus to increase my interaction with God and allowed me to think about myself. Then, I wrote the following prayer, and read it in my mind before every meal, praying earnestly so that I could find my direction in life.

Dear God, 

I’ve fallen short from your glory, but I know that you have never departed, and that you are right here by my side. Fill my heart with your love, take away my worries, cleanse me, and make me whole to overcome the doubts, emptiness, and sadness in my soul. Allow me to have the wisdom to overcome these hardships I am going through. I pray that you, who loves me most, will ease and cure my sins at the right time. Thank you for still bestowing your blessings upon me. Amen.

     Over time I found myself changing. I thought nothing had changed much, but my values began to fill with love and hope. I was deeply concerned about the idea of being obedient and living by God. I started to speak about my own happiness and the happiness of people around me. My self-hatred vanished through my unremitting efforts to escape darkness. My stress seemed to be getting better. My self-abuse began to diminish. By focusing on God, I gained strength and courage to endure such loneliness and blankness. Still today, I pray to God, for I can use my tongue to speak of hope and faith. I still feel thankful to the man who handed me a single piece of paper that made my whole life change. Amen.

VALUE OF UNIVERSITIES

     What does going to university mean? Currently in Korean society, all high school students try to go to a certain university. And here, students at Korean Minjok Leadership Academy also spend three years of high school to go to the university, without much difference from other high school students in Korea. Why does college mean so much that we all try so hard to get to the top? 

     College is a place that offers study with expertise, and if there is anything you need to learn to achieve a particular dream, going to college is a very good choice. In terms of life, the majority of people recommend going to college because it is a place where they can meet new people and create new relationships. But what we want is not just a regular university. The places we want are those universities that everyone is surprised by - just a name that has high status. As one student who also wants to go to such a university, my position on the university is as follows.

     We all don't have to go to a high-ranking university. You don't even have to go to college. But you should know that the benefits of graduating from a good university certainly exist. The following example illustrates the greatest merit among them. If you don't go to college when you get a job at a company, or you graduate from a lesser university, you have to spend a lot of time and effort proving your abilities. On the other hand, if we leave Sky University, it is a place where we enter and graduate through a very difficult process, so we can proceed with some confidence, even if the former does not exert all the effort. Not just for the school's name value, but for the process of being accepted to the school - long, long years of patience, the achievements of exhaustive effort, and the overcoming of difficulties must be faced. Given this, it is clear that there is a reason to go to a university and that there are many things you can get when you go there. 

     To put it more directly, I think that only when an individual's will to go to college exists can he or she understand the meaning of university and make good use of it. There is no point in simply going to a university that your parents want or just going to the school chosen by the same group of friends around you in high school. If you are going to college for the benefit of the above-mentioned social aspects, that may be your own reason. However, if it is considered that graduating from college will bring stability to society, it cannot be the only  reason. Not only does it actually bring stability, due to the recent job shortage, but if aspirations do not exist, all of this is meaningless. 

     We cannot simply think of college as a goal in life, but as a step toward achieving our goal in life, so we can run toward a bigger dream. At least as much as my friends who are taking practical Korean language classes, I hope I can walk through my life with civic thinking, as a stepping stone to a more distant dream, rather than simply being tied up in a university only to live a decent life, regardless of whether I have a dream or not. ​​​​​​​

Though potatoes grow with tomatoes, they don't become tomatoes.  Potatoes are most beautiful when they shine in themselves, rather than when they are with all of the tomatoes. 
(Of course, the combination of French fries and tomato ketchup is acceptable.)

DEAR FUTUREME

Dear future Hayoung Kim living in 2020

Hello Harvy,

  How are things? This time next year I think you might have a hard time again, as I have been having since 2017, so I decided to send you a letter. KMLA is a mysterious place. When November comes, I lose my strength and fall into nihilism, considering every effort I make as if to no avail. I believe you might feel again the same way we did in the past, like we did two weeks ago from now (when I am writing this letter). 

  Though you might be going through some hardships controlling yourself and reconciling what you should with what you want to do, I wanted to tell you to ‘keep going’. As we did in 2019, I pray for you to have the same wisdom and the power to overcome all such afflictions you will go through, to gain the courage to endure the loneliness and to only speak of hope and faith.

  Imagine yourself: after two years, you will be finally walking into 2021 with a lighter heart and a clearer mind. Graduation is coming up, so you might be feeling various emotions that are entirely new. Enjoy those times feeling your heart pounding in your chest. Make the best of the time you spend with your friends. Don’t worry about seeing your current happiness eventually fade away; just focus on the present and live in the moment. I sincerely believe that you will do well. If not, I believe your pain won't last too long. 

  Lastly, this is a short phrase from Philippians 3:13, which I believe will be helpful for you: Keep in mind, keep going on, your future awaits you. 

Forget what is behind and look ahead.

From Hayoung Kim living in 2019 (2019.11.20)

HOW I SPEND CHUSEOK

On a scale from 1 to 10, in terms of tradition, I’d rate my Chuseok a 0.
However, in terms of its true meaning, 10. 

  You may imagine Chuseok, a major harvest festival held around the autumn equinox, is the time when people visit their hometown and share a feast of Korean traditional food, respecting the past generation by serving freshly harvested food.  

  Waking up at 1.00 p.m. on Chuseok Eve, you lazily start your daily routine, looking at the phone screen, searching for news. Scrolling down the new messages on a screen, you find one posted by one of your besties. 

“On my way to my hometown for seven and a half hours, still in the hell.”

You reply under her post. 
“Hometown, where?”

“Busan”

“Arrrrrrrrr…..”
“Why do you go there?”

“You fool, it’s my parents’ hometown. Got to visit my grandparents. What about you? heading somewhere?”

“Nope, just woke up.”

“Arrrrrrrr……sick and tired of sleeping in a car. Most of all, annoying Chuseok stuff. Anyway, I got to help my mom and aunts to prepare huge meals. I am already really tired.”

  She seems to be much bothered with ‘Chuseok thing’ - the whole Korean citizens moving to the countryside at the same time. It is also fully understandable that she is barely controlling her anger about all this traditional stuff. Trying to soothe her as much as possible, finally you end up in conversation, saying that you have a schedule. 

  After a few minutes of scrolling down, you find lots of other messages from all around, insisting that they are in the most stressful and annoying situations, scavenging for any fun stories which can take their minds out of the traffic. Shrugging your shoulders, you feel like all messages are none of your business because you have rarely been in such a situation. 

  It’s been over 8 years since you visited your grandparent’s house meeting the cousins. The family meeting other than Chuseok, when the heavy traffic reaches its peak, has become a new tradition of your family after grandfather passed away.

  Feeling a little relieved for not being under such a desperate situation of crazy traffic, you feel a little bit different at the same time, more frankly a little upset, wondering if you are all alone in the house. 
Your eyes start scouting all over the house, questioning who’s in the house.  

  Here she is.
  Your mom is yelling out to you for lunch. Yelling back to her, you tramp to the kitchen table, not surprisingly, only to find you are the only one who was not woken. Father has gone to work, and brother is also outside hanging around with his friends. 
That’s fine.  It’s normal, you think to yourself. 

  The weirdo is your mom.
  Her lunch menu was “Teokguk”, a soup made of rice cake, well decorated with seaweed and soft white egg, deeply boiled spreading a deep odor.  
Well-prepared, but neither seasonal nor traditional.  
After finishing lunch, your mother asks if you want to go watch a movie.  

  Uh-oh, that’s not normal, mom.
  Most Koreans plan a successive ‘Charye’ during Chuseok, an ancestral memorial rite. However, rather than something ancestral relating topic, she asks you about “What are some interesting movies nowadays?”, and straightly books the ticket for a movie, expecting to spend half of her daytime at the theater enjoying her rare chance of leisurely cultural life. 

Mom, is this what you will do today?  
No food? 
No relatives? 
Never mind, it is not unusual. Give her a break.

  What matters most is, now; you are left at home, all alone. 
  Your feet automatically head to your room where there a breeze cools the air. Without hesitation, and forgetting about the temporal annoyance of other family members not being there, you plunge into your bed and diving into your abyss of sleep, never realizing even in your dream that mother’s Teokguk will be the last ‘Chuseok’ish meal during the holiday break. 

  “Kotok, KKattok……. KKattok ” 
  An alarm sound from your phone wakes you up.
You see a message from your friend, Wheeseung, showing off her dinner menu with a photo posted.
She smiles brightly in her picture, as if she has never complained about anything about before. 
She is the happiest girl in her picture with lots of delicious food prepared. Inside the photo, there was beef rib marinated with rich flavored sweet and salty soybean sauce, marinated thinly sliced beef with red bean paste sauce, traditional Korean sweet potato noodles mixed with colorful vegetables and sweet soy sauce. The best-looking dish is Songpyeon, Korean traditional seasonal rice cake filled with sweet sesame seeds fillings, only available on Chuseok.  

  This single photo leads you to imagine yourself sitting together around the table, full of Korean traditional food you love, as if your phone had a 4D technology applied for expressing the scent of all food types. 

You send one phrase back to Wheeseung, “Envy you……”

You feel a deep sorrow, feelings of deprivation. 
You feel something is missing.
And, you fall asleep again, wishing to spend a ‘ordinary’ Chuseok as all others do.

  Waking up to realize it is dinner time, you scan the place around you, scouting again anyone.
This time, you find your mom returning from the movie, your dad returning from dog walking, and your older brother looking energetic after an exciting meeting with friends. 

Dad, another weirdo, asks. 
“Wanna go out eating?”

“No way! All restaurants are closed on Chuseok Eve, you know,” mom says, laughing.

“I want to eat your ramen stuff,” you and your brother chorus.

  It’s that simple.  
  Dad prepares a big pot and a bunch of instant ramen to cook. The beginning is the sort of unremarkable normal instant ramen, but after eating the noodle part, my dad’s signature menu comes in. It’s a porridge like food made with leftover ramen soup and steamed rice. Certainly it is far away from traditional family festivities; you can see all family members talking, laughing, touching, and soothing just like Wheeseung’s picture has. 

  You ask the rest if you can take a picture, and find the happiest smiles brightly on everyone’s face from the family selfies.  

  What is Chuseok for?
  Enjoyable Feast? Happy Gathering? or Stressful holiday?

  Whatever it means to you, is there any reason for having such feelings only on special holidays like Chuseok?

  I doubt it. 

  Just look around you. 

  If you believe there are affectionate and healthy family members that you can meet wherever and whenever, and if you have only humble meals to share, Chuseok comes even from ramen porridge.

ETERNAL MOMENTS

An Eternal Moment. 
    Eternal, an adjective used to describe a matter which does not change, as it transcends time. Moment, a noun which represents a brief period. Once you read this phrase, all of you might notice that these two words cannot stick together. One word is for a permanent time, while the other is for an instant in time, showing a great contradiction. This phrase, an eternal moment, is what I seek the most nowadays.

    It all started from the day I deeply thought about what happiness is and how happiness comes to life. People think that happiness is valuable only since sorrow also exists; that happiness is precious only if it does not stay permanently. However, I could not agree with this statement for some reason. Even if happiness came to my side, I was full of insecurity that I would lose the current emotion, which I longed to keep forever. This tendency led me to fail to sympathize with the previous sentence about how people generally talk about happiness and its worth.

    Taking photos or videos might be one way for people to maintain moments eternally. During a trip with a loved one, people box their memories inside the film: memories might consist of sights or emotions. Though, I think this only helps to recall and reminiscence, rather than pertaining to the feeling at that time. Pondering what actions I have made when I've felt happiness, I came up with one question.

    Why should ‘happiness’ be trapped in the framework of ‘momentary’?
Even if happiness cannot last forever, I wish joy could stand by me longer and warmly and let me feel more loved. Wanting to erase all other thoughts covering up happiness, I hope I can confirm the integrity of uncertain love towards me. Until the day I escape from this endless pain surrounded by countless emotions - anger, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness - I guess my journey to answer this question will never end.

LOLLIPOP MOMENT

I was introduced to the concept of ’lollipop moment’ through the video attached above, I wondered whether there was a lollipop moment in my life, and otherwise, if I am grown enough to give any lollipop moments to any person nearby. Considering any possible moment that I can remember, certainly, I can tell I have given some to someone else because now I understand that every single moment is meaningful to myself and someone who’s interconnected with me for some reason. What about the chance to alter myself? Now, here comes a big event which has completely changed my life.                                                                                                                                                       
      In 2016, when I was spending my last vacation during middle school, my mom recommended that I apply for a special camp called ‘IP-CEO entrepreneurship education for the gifted.’ Until the selection camp started, I strongly expressed my anger towards my mom; I did not know exactly what kind of education this camp provided, what kind of advantages I could gain from it, or what kind of students participated in the program. However, after I spent three days at KAIST, the life goals that I had I sustained for four years totally changed.                                                                           
      I had experienced several types of education provided for gifted children; each program concentrated in science, math, or integrated subjects. The IP CEO entrepreneurship education program was way different from these educational institutes. The students were passionate about inventing products, coming up with new ideas, and creating an innovative world. This difference showed an obvious distinction from students who only devoted their time in studying math and science. Drafting patents or writing a business plan in a particular topic - it was about blockchain at that time - was a new experience I had never gone through before.                                                                           
      While preparing for KMLA, I solidified my dream to become a professor, majoring in blue chemistry for a green economy. In the midst of it, the short period quantitively, but a long period qualitatively at the camp was a significant turning point in my life. My dream to become a professor turned into a dream of becoming a CEO and running a company based on my own intellectual property.                                                                                                                                                       
      Among many CEOs who focus on making the most profit of all, professor Minhwa Lee, the developer of this gifted education institute, taught us to become ‘cooperative geeks.’ A cooperative geek can be defined as a creative person who can cooperate with the artificial intelligence that will take charge of repeatability in the 21st century: a person who can move from closed efficiency to opened innovation. He also said this, “Be a person who grows the size of a pie, not a person who takes a lot of pie.” This phrase laid the foundation for me to become a broad-minded person, realizing the noblesse oblige. I became engaged in volunteering to devote myself to society to make a better world from the perspective of a student.                                                                           
      I always feel thankful to professor Minhwa Lee, who gave me the opportunity to participate in this KAIST IP CEO education institute. For three years, the program enabled me to become interested in more diverse fields and a wider variety of social classes, from the weak to the strong. One day, I wish I could become a big influencer as professor Lee has done through this institution. In another essay, I will introduce a lollipop moment I gave to my friend when I was 16, though the influence is not that big compared to what I have experienced.

MANDATORY COMMUNITY SERVICE

myself volunteering for reducing CO2 at the age of 12

  Community service is an altruistic activity of adding one individual’s effort to those who are in desperate need, without compulsion. The two main concepts of true community service are, firstly sincerity; whether a person conducting service has sincere desire to provide assistance to any group of people on need in particular places. Secondly, whether a person is willing to serve others for nothing. At most schools, students should perform community services for certain hours as compulsory graduation requirement. Some say since these activities are progressed compulsorily, such activities are not genuine and don't benefit anyone. However, I believe that students can take advantage from doing such mandatory social service because the service itself is part of life learning that how we are benefitted from our community and how we are able to return it back to our society.

   To start with, school is not only an educational institution that provide the opportunities of gaining knowledge, but also the institution where students can learn to be part of our society. Given this, community service is one of the way worth taking compulsorily.  It helps young learners have hands on experience and learn about how people deal with such complex life. The socializing process is one important role that school as an educational institution should provide the students with. By participating social service programs, contacting with all different kinds of people in our community,  and learning to solve problems, students can have personal benefit. The programs will help the young participants to be more reliable, compassionate, and well-organized. Theses are important factors for promoting personal growth and self esteem as young students and by extension it will provide them with chances of testing ourselves, especially in their career related experiences.  

   Additionally, and most of all, the young learn to think about the entire community as a whole.  When they work for their communities with the notion that they are improving someone’s life in our community, can see the direct influence on others, making their community a better place.  If the school does not make students to serve for others, they might never try to volunteer because they have never learned to do so or never been informed about it. Even if the beginning would be hard, once the students can serve at least once, they can find themselves able to help others and that it is a rewarding and worthy activity to do. This realization can lead students to perform services willingly with better self images.  Those who even started the service even if the school asked to do so initially will participate it with such better reasons as “To help our community.” or “To save local resources.” and so on. This shows that if students improve their sense of belonging and responsibility, they will be able to learn about the truest sense of community services they have done through variety of experiences. 

   In conclusion, I believe that school’s purpose of requiring students to go through a specific amount of community services is to let students learn the real meaning of what volunteering is and the need of volunteering. I suppose these purposes are the benefits which the article brings to students therefore, I agree to the idea that students gain merits from mandatory services. The coercion of volunteering is a tool to give students a chance to realize that the service itself is part of life learning that how we are benefitted from our community and how we are able to return it back to our society. 

KOREA’S BOYCOTT OF JAPAN

Logo of Japan Boycotting made by one Citizen

  South Korea's boycott of Japan began with an export ban in retaliation for the ruling after the Supreme Court that Japanese companies should compensate Korean victims of forced labor. Japan Boycott was started by Koreans who was frustrated for Japanese having no remorse for their early history. Amid the debate over the boycott, I agree to use Korean products, not Japanese ones.                                                                           
     The act of favoring domestic goods, which has been carried out in tandem with the opposition of Japanese products, has motivated Korea to grow. A prime example is helping to achieve the development of Korea's material industry. Samsung, which used to produce electronic products from rare earth materials held by Japan, is currently developing a technology that will make products only with domestic materials without Japan's help - taking advantage of the current crisis. People say it will not be that easy, but Samsung, enough to be a pool of the nation's talent, is believed have to achieved its desired goal.                                                                                                                                          
     The majority of Japanese travelers are Koreans, and the number is increasing every year. With the active Japan boycott, many people are canceling trips to Japan and traveling to local resort areas such as Jeju Island and Gangneung. This image catalyzes in not only developing the nation's tourism culture but also strengthening the national economy. People often go to Japan because it is cheap and close. In reality, traveling within Korea is closer and more comfortable for communication, taking a vacation, and touring the culture. As a Korean who traveled to Jeju Island rather than Japan during vacation, I think that the boycott of Japan brings not only economic development but also cultural development, bringing great help to our country.                                                                                                     
     Of course, I agree that some Japan boycotts are moving in the wrong direction. There are some friends among elementary school students who simply act on the perception of 'Japan is bad' without knowing the exact facts or circumstances, and there are also citizens who talk too harshly to those who use Japanese goods. Though, I believe that problems caused by people who did not properly understood the purpose of Japan boycotting cannot be a reason to oppose Japanese boycotting. The media should lead and help Koreans to advance the Japan boycott in the right direction. The nation should help the country build a better economic situation under these circumstances. This is the key to turning the nation's current economic crisis into an opportunity.         

     Japan is the world's third-largest economy. That is why some Koreans say that it is a reckless fight and that they should surrender and build a friendly relationship with Japan. However, there is no way to end the fight without damage, and if Korea gives in without any response, we will just become an economic colony of Japan. In the past, Lee Sun-Shin put up a long story by beating 133 Japanese naval forces with 12 Panok boats.                                                                                                                                
    "Now that there are still twelve fronts left for God, we can win if we fight back. If all the troops are destroyed now, I fear that the enemy will be lucky to reach the Han River through the lake. The enemy will not dare to despise us, for even though the front is small, the humble God has not died."                       
    Without Admiral Lee's determination, we would have been deprived of our country by Japan during the Japanese Invasion of Korea and would now be living in a Japanese-speaking nation with Japanese names. Our country is now growing into an economic powerhouse. What is more, it means that it is time to fight back proudly. We should all respond politically to Japanese Abe's outdated and unreasonable preemptive attack of a political nature.