To Infinity and Beyond

“If you like easy, my program isn’t for you. Nothing great comes from easy.” A quote from the movie “Big Hero 6”. The quote itself: not bad and quite touching, but to common. As a 13 year old boy, the movie was just one of the Disney movies that I enjoyed; the quote just went into one of my ears and came out through the other. No big thoughts about it. But when I saw this movie again a 3 weeks ago (I don’t know what drove me to watch it; maybe I just wanted to go back to being a little kid), things were totally different. Life as a high school student, especially in KMLA, is definitely CHALLENGING. Even when you live in a dormitory for about 600 days, you don’t get used to getting up at 6:00am to go to exercise through the freezing air that pierces your skin. You don’t get used to the overwhelming schoolwork, club activity, and contests that overwhelm you and shred your schedule. But here in KMLA, in a life like this you can do something great. I know, in fact, that only in m...

I’m proud to say that I had a quite happy youth. Many factors played a role in that: position of my school (right in front of Garosu-gil, one of the hottest places in Seoul), supporting parents, and my ability to be scholarly top between my peers with a little effort (not in KMLA, but at middle school, I was quite smart actually). But still, the main reasons were my friends. Since I was young, I loved people, especially friends because I was an only child. They were my brothers and sisters. Although I love all (well, at least most) of my friends in my youth, sadly, its very hard to contact them regularly in a dormitory school in Gangwondo. Still, I have six friends that I still keep in contact, meet at least once a year, and truly love. So, today I will talk about who they are and how they influenced me. My first friend, L, a skinny boy with a height similar as me. He is basically the my ‘bob’ friend (best of best friend). He was in my first grade class in middle school and l...

A circle. A geometric figure without corners and edges. A perfection. Even as a little boy, I've admired circles. The young child’s dreams and goals didn’t allow any corners in its perfect circle. Mistakes and failures were merely imperfections; I was afraid to become imperfect, and Thomas Edison’s all-time famous phrase was merely a set of words (no offense, I respect Edison and his spectacular inventions, but I didn’t understand how failure can be anyone’s mother at that time). Still, as I grew up and met numerous challenges, I failed. “We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us--that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect.” An ironic remark by Emilio Estevez, an American actor and director. “How can a wreck be beautiful? After all, it’s a wreck, a piece of useless junk.” This is what I thought just a few years ago when I first saw these words. But after I failed in the numerous quests that hit me, I realized that...

   “To Infinity and Beyond!”, a simple and quite childish catchphrase from the Toy Story series, influenced me and guides me through the hardships and puzzles life throws at me. It all started when I was 5 years old, watching Toy Story 1 at kindergarten. It wasn’t my favorite animation (I liked Finding Nemo way better), but Buzz Lightyear’s “To Infinity and Beyond” just won’t come out of my head. It woke the ambitions and creativity of the young mind, urging the little boy to push his limits and change the world. Since then, I refused to follow the path others have already made. This turned out to be very challenging as I faced reality, but still I have not once regretted my way of life.     One thing that interested the odd boy was computer. To admit, I am no mechanic (I break things better than fixing them). Still, I was dragged to scientific fiction, much more than my friends, and always dreamed of making my own R2-D2. As I grew up, I learned about ...