To Infinity and Beyond

“…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 ...

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 arti...

“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...