To Infinity and Beyond

 

          I am in the USA Computing Olympiad platinum division, and have won a few prizes in the Korean Olympiad in Informatics. I have done some major computer science research including two papers published in an international journal, and numerous minor projects. I am also creating a novel SNS system to overcome the stress that current SNS gives.            But actually, none of these are the answer to why I code. I am not a code competitor, nor a researcher, nor a utilitarian developer. I am a humanist philosophical coder, coding to understand the principles of life. And I became so when I realized three things:            1) When I realized no two codes can be the same. Even for the same problem, the codes of two individuals will be different. The range of difference can be broad from the difference in the fundamental algorithm to a simple difference such as the name of variables. This difference tell us not only the amount of experience in coding, but also the background, st

“…and they lived happily ever after.”            The ending I hated the most during my childhood. What happened to Snow White and Prince Charming for three quarters of their life? What happened to Harry Potter after he graduated Hogwarts? Frustrated by the unsatisfactory endings of the movies and novels, I started reconstructing the stories and searching for answers of the numerous ideas popping in my head in an artificial world: a world made of toys. From the moment I unboxed my first Power Ranger, these little figures have endured a steady presence in my life. My jointed rainbow rangers were not just toys for children; they were a bridge, bringing my imaginations to life. With them on my side, I searched for the answers to epilogue of novels, sudden peculiar ideas, and much more. The 3-inch soldiers and I became the children of Harry Potter one day, drawing the epilogue of what happened after Voldemort’s death. Another day, we became babysitters of the baby dragons living in t

1. Where do you belong?     I belong in a constantly shifting maze. One step, I see green mountains and transparent rivers. I see rainbow birds chirping, with a smell of strawberries stinging in my nose. Another step, I see a empty desert. Harsh sandstorms throw sand at me, piercing my skin. Everything changes in a second. One thing, however, does not change. A path still remains below my foot. Whether I am in a melting-hot volcano or a freezing ice land, I will still navigate through the maze. Same in life. Whether I am in Seoul, KMLA, or even in college at US, nothing changes. I will struggle to find my way and navigate through my visions. Belonging to a place is a temporary concept. I belong to the path of my dreams. I belong to myself. 2. Sympatico?     That day was a pretty hot summer. Because my mom wouldn't let me turn on the air conditioner, I decided to go to a cafe to study. There I started coding one of the problems of a computing olympiad. After a few minutes of intense

1. I love Apgujeong. It was, is, and will be my all-time favorite city. I love the light, smell, and feel of Garosu-gil and Saerosu-gil which I spent most of my 3 years of life in. And though I love my home, I still struggle in finding the way through buildings. 2. I love toys, as you all saw in my formal essay. Especially, power rangers are my favorite. Still, I like other toys too, such as smurfs, shrek, black panther, etc. I still play with them once in a while with my own scenarios. 3. Talking about scenarios, one of my goals is to make an animation movie scenario. I love Disney animations like “Inside-Out”, “Boss Baby”, “COCO”, and so on. One day, I’ll finish designing my own fantasy world and start finding designers and BGM producers to make it a film. 4. I recently watched “The Greatest Showman”. The music at the start “A Million Dreams” became my favorite song. I listen to it at least 10 times a day. It sort of mirror my vision about success. "Every n

Violated self-study regulations. Two penalty points. Honestly, I am not the model kid. I’m more like a normal teenager who needs an hour of Netflix time a week. And sadly, my beloved school doesn’t allow that. My school, KMLA, which is one of the few dormitory schools in Korea, has a strict set of rules followed by penalty points. And one rule is the self-study regulation, my worst nightmare. Every weekday from seven to twelve, we are forced to study. And if we are caught dozing or “relieving stress” by the dorm parent, we get a nice two penalty points as a gift. This system did fix my laziness to some extent, but every once in a month or less, I face a life or death situation: penalty points versus going crazy. So, for my sanity and some comfort in my life, I decided to start a grand project: the dorm parent detector . The basic idea of the project is simple: when the dorm parent enters my dorm room, a notification comes to my computer, and I can automatically change t

           Laughter. Pranks. A few fights. Laughter again. These are what defined my boyhood. Every time I walk through Garosu Street (one of the hottest place in the country and the street right in front of my middle school), I slip back into the old days (well, at least for me) with the smell of nostalgia.            As a fourteen-years-old boy, I met Wasabi in the school orchestra. Okay, I know this sounds weird, but Wasabi is a name (a rap name, actually) of a boy, also fourteen-years-old back then. A shrinking violet back then, I did NOT like talking with others. But, as the king of socializing, Wasabi talked to me every time we met. Still, I didn’t care about him much before the day he made me listen to his demo-tape. For the first time, I gazed him with awe. The tape was AWESOME. It seems that the amazement was shown on my face because he asked me if I want to rap with him in the school performance at fall.            For the first time, I discovered something as interesti

“…and they lived happily ever after.” But they were only like 20 years old! How can nothing happen in three-quarters of their life? The five-year-old boy still had so many questions left unanswered. Frustrated by the unsatisfactory ending of his stories, he slammed his book and stormed into his room. Closing his eyes, he began to find answers in his own artificial world: a world made of toys. From the moment I unboxed my first toy until now at the edge of teenage, these little figures have endured a steady presence in my life. My jointed rainbow rangers were not just toys for children; they were a bridge, bringing my imagination to life. With them on my side, I searched for the answers to the epilogue of novels, sudden peculiar ideas, and much more. The 3-inch soldiers and I became the children of Harry Potter one day, and babysitters of nasty dragons the other. One adventure connected to another, sprouting new ideas along the way. As our book of travel got thicker, my s

“The Truth is… I am Iron Man.” …But what next? Waiting for the next movie was definitely not the five-year-old boy’s style. Besides, he had better ideas for Obadiah Stane: freezing to death was NOT enough for the evil villain. He dashed home and stormed into his room. Getting his own suit on, he rocketed up to the sky for a rematch with Stane. He became a hero in his own artificial world: a world made of toys. From the moment I unboxed my first toy until now at the edge of teenage, these little creatures have endured a steady presence in my life. My jointed rainbow rangers were not just toys for children; they were a bridge, bringing my imagination to life. With them on my side, I searched for the answers to numerous questions popping in my head. Wondering what if Voldemort was still alive (he resurrected once, why not twice?), I transformed into Harry Potter’s son and the 3-inch soldiers into my peers at Hogwarts for the final battle with Voldemort. Imagining how a wimpy hig

Which will you choose: fantasy or reality?   Though fantasy is definitely sweeter, we are often slapped into reality by the puzzles life throws at us. But as a little child, everyone surely lived a rather dreamy life. At least in my youth, I did. Somewhere in the world, dragons still existed, soaring high above the seas, breathing fire. Demigods would take an adventure under the blessing of Zeus and Poseidon. And at every Christmas, Santa Claus would send elves disguised as men to monitor kids and make the naughty list (gods, I was so afraid of being on the list). However, I was an odd boy, much more than my fellow daydreamers. The heroes of dreamland were not just imaginations to me. They were literally next to me every second. Now, I’m perfectly healthy; I don’t see things or go to mental hospitals. But believe it or not, it ’ s real. I met the heroes in an artificial world: a world made of  toys. It all started on my fifth birthday. That day, on a warm April morning,

Have you ever crashed with a herd of moose? Well, my friend’s car did. My family, my friend’s family was in Maine to see autumn leaves. It was a chilly morning of September. The autumn leaves looked great but I couldn’t see the end of the road. My friend’s name is Kyle, my friend’s little brother’s name is Etha n . All of us can’t stand it if we‘re bored. We were locked in the car for a million centuries. Of course, we were bored. Kyle shouted. “I’m bored!” I added, “Me too!” Ethan complained, “We’re all bored!” My mom told us to calm down, but just then Kyle’s mom detected a moose herd. It looked at us as if it was scared. Then i t came racing towards our car as fast as a train! First, we didn’t notice that it wa s going to crash with us, but we finally realized it was going to slam us. We screamed, “Ahhhh!” I have to admit I was quite impressed to see a moose herd. But we were also horrified because, think about huge animals with wide, large, sharp horns were dashing tow

            W hich will you choose: fantasy or reality?  Though fantasy is definitely sweeter, we are often slapped into reality by the puzzles life throws at us. But as a little child, everyone surely lived a rather dreamy life. At least in my youth, I did. Somewhere in the world, dragons still existed, soaring high above the seas, breathing fire. Demigods would take an adventure under the blessing of Zeus and Poseidon. And at every Christmas, Santa Claus would send elves disguised as humans to monitor kids and make the naughty list (gods, I was so afraid of being on the list). However, I was an odd boy, much more than my fellow daydreamers. I could see the galloping knights, hear the explosions of the battlefield, and even talk to heroes of dreamland. They were literally next to me every second. Now you would probably be wondering if I am having regular meetings with the psychiatrist. But believe it or not, it ’ s real. I met the heroes in an artificial world: a world made of  toy