Banyan (CMLU): My Second Family Ver.2

           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 interesting as computers. Practicing rap and performing in mini-concerts in field trips thrilled me, removing stage fright that always lurked deep inside me. Coincidentally, hip-hop caused a grand hit in 2015, so naturally, I began talking with new friends about Meteor, my favorite song, and how cool the beat is. Through this conversations, I discovered new marvelous songs and inspiration for my new lyrics. As my social relationship expanded, I became more active, and after the end of  the school performance, my fear of talking to strangers disappeared.

           And that’s how I met David, the third member of our team’s school performance. Contrasting to his surprisingly mature face, he was (and is) a naïve kindergartener. One time, he stole my slipper, taped bang snaps (small exploding gunpowder balls) on my slipper, and used black paper to cover it up. Gods, that was painful. To David, everything, from pranks to studying, is a grand mission to give his best in. Preparing mid-term with him, I was first astonished by the hours he concentrated. But a very competitive boy, I began to follow him and tried to stay longer in the library than him. Though I lost most of the times, I turned off the library lights for the last three days.

           The school’s performance linked me with one last boy, a skinny teenager called Sean. Sean in many ways have opposite values as me. While I loved science, he was a humanity kid who loved speeches and debates. But just for fun, we joined each other’s team in different competitions. While he participated in science fairs with me, I opted into debate, for the first time in my life. And magically, our team won first place in school. Now, I loved books and reading, but I was no speaker until I fell in love with debate. From then and on, I watched debate about complex topics such as parliamentary systems, and to understand them, I absorbed knowledge politics, international relations, and ethic, something I would have never looked at before.

           Slipping back into present, I realize how the three friends shaped me. From the little computer geek who was as quiet as a mouse, Wasabi’s rap lesson taught me the inspiration and creativity that social interaction provides; David’s attitude taught me the value and potential of persistence; Sean and his debate tournaments enlightened my appreciation of humanities and many other fields in the future.

           My memories as CMLU (our rap team name, haha) continues to influence me in different ways. Deep connections with the completely different three shaped me to be more sensitive: teaching me how to listen, empathize, and interact in various situations: in the process I have grown much adaptable. For the new friends I will meet in the future: I am ready to change, learn, and mature by them.