I think almost every high school students in South Korea has experienced one of the greatest challenge in their lives, entrance exam for universities. There was no exception for me, either. The greatest challenge in my life was being a senior of high school. I had to prepare for both the Korean SAT test, and nonscheduled admission, which gave me the greatest challenge of my life. First, I had to study English extra harder than other students. Nonscheduled admission for universities has many types. Among them, I had planned to apply for the special admission for English ability. In Korea, there are many opportunities of nonscheduled admission for the students who are good at English. In order to apply, students had to take authorized English tests such as TOEFL or TOEIC. Since I've always been so confident about my English, I tried to take the tests and watch for a chance of special admissions. However, my test results were much poor than I thought. At first, I was depressed and considered giving up the nonscheduled admission and just focus on SAT. If it had not been for my mom, I would have given up. My mom encouraged me and told me that she will always support my decision. With her great support, I decided to give it a shot one more time. After I had decided to achieve the goal at any costs, I had to study really hard since I had to study for both SAT, and English tests. I never wasted time doing things like watching TV or texting with friends. I just focused on studying thinking of my future. In the end, after all those patience, I could get a high score which was enough for me to enter a university of my dream. Also, I didn't have to take the SAT test, since I already got the enrollment form universities. Sometimes it was hard for me to endure all the pressure of studying and it burdened me. However, the challenge taught me a cliché, but a universal truth. No pain, no gain.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Opinion writing/ Best City to live in / Minju Yeo
I've been to many cities around the world. Among those amazing cities, I consider Vancouver as the best city to live in. It's an attractive city that shows people both the beauty of nature and charm of developed modern city. The city has actually been selected as the best city to live in the entire world. There are many reasons why I think Vancouver is the best city to live in, but I can think of three big reasons. First, the city has a great nature environment with fresh air. Vancouver is surrounded by mountains and forests. Therefore, the city is not only beautiful but also its air is very clean and nice. I could never forget the moment I went to the Stanley Park for the first time. I could feel the fresh air and breeze. Also, one of my friends, who was suffering from atopy actually got cured after staying in Vancouver for a year. I think Vancouver's fresh air is a strong advantage for people to live in. Second, the transportation system of the city is comfortable. It has all kinds of transportations, such as buses, subway and taxi. Other than these, there are other transportations which are only in Vancouver. For example, there is a kind of transportation system called Sky train, which its stations are located throughout the city. It's very fast and easy to use. I've always took Sky train while I was traveling around the city, and I felt no difficulty although I'm not used to it. Finally, the city has a great library system. When I stayed in Vancouver, I was impressed by its advanced system. In the city, there are hundreds of libraries. All those libraries in the city are connected by computer system. Therefore, you can borrow and return the books in any libraries located in the city. Also, libraries have many programs that promote children to read books. I remember that a library gives children a medal if they complete reading all the suggested list of books. I thought these kinds of programs are pretty good for the increase in citizen's reading. These are the three reasons why I consider Vancouver as the best city to live in. If I get a chance to live abroad someday, I will definitely choose Vancouver.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Jae-Hun Lee/ A special memory from your childhood/ Mon9AM
The first day riding a bike
I can remember when I got on the bike first. When I was seven, my dad taught me to ride a bike in front of my house. First, it was difficult to ride a bike, holding the center. I couldn't go more than five meters. So, my father grabbed the end of the bike and he pushed the bike behind me. Because my father was holding the bike, I was able to ride a bike. When I looked back at some point, however, my father did not hold the bike anymore. Naturally, I can hold the center, and thereafter I can ride a bike. It was very interesting moment when I was learning how to ride a bike. I usually ride a bike and sometimes, I can remember that moment, the first day riding a bike.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
SON NA RAE/ A CHALLENGE I FACED/ MON 9-11
THE UNIVERSITY’S REFUSAL
‘Sorry, your name is not on the list.’ I felt I was left alone somewhere in the isolated island. This one sentence was only result from all years of my effort to enter the college. So, for a while, I used to express myself as a loser. One of the difficulties was my family issue. I had been a black sheep of my family; for long, they had to endure my hysteric anger caused by Korean SAT, and they were spitting in their hands to revenge me. Missing their long tip, they couldn’t touch me at all. Because I had no guts to face them, I pulled the bedclothes over my head, crying the whole week. And the next challenge was my friends. Those who succeeded to entrance exam could not be happy in front of me, because my appearance, which lost over 5 pounds, represented my words-I envy you, don’t you dare to boast it, or something like this ugly comments. It was obvious that, out of them, those who got the entrance admission were the winners, and the rest of them were the losers who have the twisted and crooked mind. I was no more who used to be, and I hated myself. And this hurt me the hardest. During my lifetime until that moment, I had been proud of myself. I believed I was so called jack-of-all-trades. No matter what the others say, I loved myself so much. In hindsight, I should have been the last person that judges me by the admission paper, but for that time, I was resentful of myself. One night of the days with handful of resignation and sprinkle of disappointment, I got a call from my aunt. Before I complained about where and how I am, her remarks made me gain my feet. She said, ‘God wanted you to lower yourself, because, if you, having so beautiful face, succeeded at one go, you must have been very arrogant.’ Come to think of it, she was right. I needed to be humble, and realized these times of crisis can be reversed into the opportunity. That night, I decided to try one more time before my family. All of them cheered me up and supported, then I could really hear them, and plucked up my courage again. From the very start, I should have remembered that, the study was not for others, but me. There is no reason to care about others whether I succeed or fail.
Monday, June 4, 2012
ChaiHyeon NAH/Narrative paragraph/Mon 9-11am
My First Scuba Diving
Last winter vacation, I went to an island called Bali with my family for 10 days. It was located near Indonesia, so the weather was hot when we arrived there in December. This beautiful island was full of fresh fruits and crystal blue seas. My family enjoyed our holiday having delicious foods, swimming, and reading books. One day, my father, sister, and I decided to try something new, and finally decided to learn scuba diving in the deep sea! It was my first time to do scuba diving so many equipments of this activity was very uncomfortable in the first time. And there were many things to learn before we actually go into the water. We had to learn some simple sign languages to communicate in the water and how to equalize the pressure in the deep sea. When I could finally dive into the sea, I was really amazed to see how huge it was the sea! It was a lot deeper than it looks on the surface. And there were so many colors. All different kind of fishes had different colors and the corals also had strong orange, red, or clean white colors. It was amazing and I still cannot forget the feeling of my first scuba diving in Bali.
Youn Hee KIM/An Embarassing incident for me/Mon9-11
It was one year ago, on February. I was expecting to come to
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Sora Kim/something that happened to me while I was on a trip/Mon 9~11
Terrible public transportation
Last winter vacation, I traveled to Gangneung with my friend. We stayed 2 days and we had a great time. I visited traditional market. There were lots of interesting traditional foods. They were delicious. And we spent a lot of time to see the deep dark blue sea. We loved the cozy and peaceful atmosphere in Gangneung. But the last day of trip, we had a really bad experience. Before we went to Seoul, we decide to eat lunch. We didn't have a car so we had to take a bus towards bus terminal. After we ate soft tofu, we were going to bus station. We started to wait the bus. But after an hour, the bus didn't come. We were starting to be nervous to miss bus schedule. An half an hour later, we began to be angry about terrible public transportation in Gangneung. We wanted to take a taxi but we didn't have enough money. Eventually about two hours later, the bus came. Fortunately, we didn't miss the bus but we were so cold, tired and angry. And I made up my mind that I'll never travel to Gangneung without a car.
Kim Ji Su/ how I met the most important person in my life.
Every cloud has a silver lining
The most important person I have right now is my boyfriend. IT has been a nearly a year since we first met. It all happened last year. I was having really hard time at that moment.
I've just broken with my ex-boy friend and the trip that I've planning for months has been canceled because my dad's sudden change of mind. I was really depressed because it seemed that my first summer vacation in college was about to turn in to a night mare.
Then one of my friends, who pitied me, recommended a society. Its purpose was to go on a trip and have fun with various university students. I thought there was nothing to lose so I signed up for it. I applied to the trip to Yang Pyeong. On the day to Yang Pyeong, several students gathered up a little bit early at the bus station including me. As we were waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, a tall boy came up to me. He was so tall that I had to lift up my face in order to see his face properly. It was a late summer afternoon and cool breezes were surrounding us. His hair was blown about by the wind and a scent of perfume prevailed through the air. His tanned skin glowed in the sunlight, making him look like covered in milk caramel chocolate. He gave me a bright smile that instantly caught up my mind. We got along well on the way to Yang Pyeong. We chatted and chatted as if we were old friends who haven't seen each other for a long time. Eventually, that day turned my whole summer vacation from a night mare to a summer vacation that I would never forget. I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Lee Myungjae /My grandmother/ Mon12
My Grandmother
I don't have many memories related to my grandmother. She passed away from cancer more than 10 years ago, so I remember her voice or look not very well. However, I cannot forget the short moment we had long time ago. When I was in elementary school, my family suddenly got a phone call that grandmother got cancer in her stomach. My mother ran to the hospital right after the call, but the rest of my family couldn't visit her for some time because we lived very far from her place. When the whole family finally came to visit her, the bad disease had already spread out most of her body. When we came in her hospital room, there were almost all relatives of my mother's side. I felt great to see my aunts and uncles who lived far away, but because I was so shy that time, I wanted them to welcome me and talk to me first. However, I soon got disappointed to find that they only took attention to my younger sister. They stroke her head and said, "You really pretty little girl. How have you been?", "I'll give you some money. Buy and eat some snack" Actually, she was the youngest girl among the whole relatives and since my parents had her quite late in their marriage, it was natural that relatives considered her very cute and precious. Even so, I didn't understand why all the people did so kindly to her but never found me beside her. So upset, I lay down on a sofa at one corner of the room and started to read a comic book. It wasn't funny at all, but I didn't want to show myself again. After a while, my mother found me and said loudly, "Oh! What are you doing there alone, my girl!" Suddenly my face turned red, and I came close to burst into tears because her words made me more frustrated. Then other relatives got the situation quickly said in embarrassment, "We gave money to your sister because she's younger than you. Don't be upset." I said, "I'm not upset." and the situation wrapped up there. But I still didn't understand their words. Some time passed by, and most relatives went out to have dinner. Then, my grandmother, lying in the bed, suddenly stood up and said to me in a small voice, "Let's go out." So we started walking along the corridor. When we walked some time, she suddenly stopped and slipped something into my hand from her patient's gown. That was a creased 5000 won bill. She said, "I'm sorry but that's all I have at the moment. Get something delicious." I realized that she had cared about me since she knew I was upset. I was so moved and felt like crying right away. On the way go home, in a car, I put out the bill and looked at it again and again thinking of her love. Few weeks later, my family was told that she was gone in the end. Now, 13 years has passed since her death, but her love always remains in my mind. I wish I could see her again, even a very short minute, and say that I really thank her and love her.
AnYeonju_Narrative
Germany and the lost wallet
Two years ago, I went on a trip to a country where I had always wanted to visit: Germany. My German trip started in Berlin, and I went on to Hidelberg, Strousbourg, and finally, Munich. It took a month. Just like what it was in my dream, Germany was wonderful country; I fell in love with the citizen’s kindness, beautiful museums and architects, and well-preserved historical sites. Although I don’t speak German, still there was no problem to travel around the country, because almost every person there spoke English. I felt comfortable and safe as if I had been in my home country. However, on the last day of my trip, while I was waiting for my train at a station in Munich, I experienced the worst thing that a tourist could ever experience in foreign countries. I went to the station’s public restroom where I need to pay five euros for use. I needed to take the money out from my wallet. I inserted the coin into the machine at the gate of the restroom. Since it was the first time that I used a pay restroom, I was a little bit excited going into in. The facilities were very clean and it smelled of vanilla in there. I could not stop looking at everything in the restroom in admiration; I was just marveled at the good manner of culturally advanced society, which was reflected in a station’s restroom. I used the restroom with great satisfaction. I went back and take a seat in the waiting room. After a few minutes, I was frightened. I found myself without my wallet. I tried to calm down and think where I misplaced it. I couldn’t easily remember it, so I went back to the spots where I had visited in the station. There were only twenty minutes left before the departure of my train. When I passed by the restroom, I could remember where I had put my wallet: in the restroom. However I couldn’t go into it, because I didn’t have five euros to go through the gate. I found a clerk and told him about my situation. Fortunately, and likely to any other Germans I met, he understood English, and told me that a lost wallet which had been found by a citizen is kept in the office near the restroom. I went to the office with him, showed my passport to prove that was mine, and got my wallet back. Surprisingly, the one hundred euro bill was still in my wallet. I couldn’t stop thanking the clerk and an unknown German citizen that found my wallet and gave it to the office. It was the most frightening experience so far in my travel history, but, on the other hand, this experience confirmed my belief that Germany is an advanced society.
Eun Dana/Narrative paragraph/Mon9-11am
A challenge I had to face.
Have you ever been so stressed and discouraged that you just wanted to quit everything and give up? During a lifetime, people face many difficulties. At the moment, we feel exhausted and helpless but through those difficulties, we learn and grow. I had to face a challenge when I was sixteen, when I just came back from the United States. In sixth grade, my family and I left Korea for the U.S, and came back three years later. So I basically skipped Korean middle school curriculum but I never thought that this could be such a big problem for me. When I entered high school, it hit me. I used to go to a foreign language high school and the students were very competitive and prepared. High school curriculums were difficult to follow without the knowledge of preceding studies. Grades were poor, pre KSAT scores were terrible and I just could not see the future. It was not that I did not try, I did. But I just could not beat the ones that came prepared so well. As time passed, I felt more depressed and discouraged. Then one day, my English teacher came up to me and recommended preparing for university in my own way- to make the best use of my strength, English. Of all the subjects in high school, one that did not betray me was English. After that, I searched for the method that could suit me. I prepared for university doing things that fit my type of entrance. As I got many achievements like TOEFL scores and awards, I found my courage back. Now, I am a student at HUFS and I feel very proud to be a student here.
wansoo cho/something that happened to you while you were on a trip/ mon9-11
When it rains, it pours.
What did you do during the last winter vacation? Probabley some of you might went to trip. Was it good? It's just as well if you say 'yes'. Unfortunately, I'm not. It was my first trip with my friends and It didn't go that well.
Have you ever heard of rail road? It's vacation event from Seoul Metro. You can take trains whatever you like for a week with a cheap price. My friends and I expectantly decided to make a 5days schedule and distributed it to one by one. One of my friends take the AnDong as his place which is the first destination of our trip and he was supposed to search information like transportations, train time, tourist attraction and so on. That's the beginning of disaster of our trip.
One day before we trip, suddenly the friend called me he must stay home because of his grandmother. He said blah blah blah, but my ears were already closed and didn't want to hear anymore. I was really angry and at the same time, also worried about our trip because we didn't have anything about our first destination. We were out of time and had to go AnDong in a defenseless state. But unexpectedly, things seemed to go well at the first time. We ate delicious AnDong JJim Dak(chicken) and went to HaHoe Village. However, one of our members plunk down on the ground complaining his stomachahe. I was at a loss and called 119 for an emergency measurement. What matters worse, because of poor weather rescue workers couldn't find us easily. It was literally pouring.
Can you immagine the result of our trip? We just went back home and spend a boring vacation. Because it was my first time with friends, disappointment was really huge. During the coming summer vacation, I hope to achieve sucessful trip.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Yun You Jung / An Embarrassing Incident / Monday 9 a.m.
An Embarrassing Incident For Me
201102252 Yun You Jung
I can't forget an embarrassing incident which happened 2 years ago in winter. Before I entered university, I had lived in Pusan. And when I was in third grade in high school, I had to go to Seoul for taking several writing proficiency tests. After finishing those tests, I had the time to go somewhere. I decided to go to the Kyobo Book Centre in Gwanghwamun because I love books. Even looking at piles of books makes me feel good. Also I wanted to see the new interior of Kyobo Book Centre. After hearing my decision, my mom said to me, "I think there isn't enough time to go there and read a book". But I really wanted to go there. Looking at a subway map which I had picked up at the information desk, I estimated how long it would take and found out that there is enough time to visit there. Finally my mom and I went to the Kyobo Book Centre. I went around that large book store and saw which were published. I felt the tension from test is removed! With a light heart, my mom and I left Kyobo Book Centre as planned. We took a subway and had a rest. But things started to go wrong. It took more time for subway to reach at the next station than I had expected. Furthermore, we spend many times to transfer subway lines. I couldn't think this because it took less time to transfer in Pusan. I was worried that my mom and I would miss the train which we reserved. Finally, we arrived at Seoul station but the train had already left just 1 minute ago. There were not any tickets left on that day, except for prestige class. But it was very expensive. I was in panic because we have to go to Pusan in that day. After all, we bought tickets for prestige class and arrived at Pusan. I really blamed me for miscalculating the time. Although I used prestige class first in my life, it was very embarrassing incident for me.
Ji-young JANG / A funny or embarrassing incident / Mon 9 a.m.
It's a story that encouraged me to learn English harder. It happened 5 years ago, when I was in United States as an exchange student. It was a hot summer day and the air conditioning system in school didn't work well. Walking down the hall way for 6th period, I was knocked out because of hot air. As I entered the class room I saw my two U.S. history teachers and said, 'Oh my goodness, I am hot!' At that very moment, they chuckled but their faces were saying 'What does she talking about?' I didn't know why they acted like that. So I asked my host mom on the way home. She laughed and explained, 'They might have misunderstood what you said. "I am hot" means that you are on a roll and you boast about that.' I was so embarrassed of saying 'I am hot' instead of 'It's hot.' I thought, 'What if they think of me as boasting person who doesn't know any modesty.' Then I was reminded of the English class in middle school. I recognized that I had learned that few years ago. It is so basic thing! I learned English for several years and couldn't think of difference between 'I am hot' and 'It's hot.' I was disappointed with myself. After this episode happened, I made up my mind to study English much harder. It led me to finish my english grammar book that I brought from Korea. With finishing that book, I could be much more confident when I talk with natives in everyday life.
Narrative paragraph / Cho yoon jung
Narrative paragraph about something that happened to you while you were on a trip
Coincident Connection
Last summer, July, I was traveling all around the Thailand with my friends. Every place and every moment were exciting memory until now, but there was most special thing happened to me while I was traveling. On the fifth day of the traveling, we moved our places from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We were going to stay at a guest house where a Korean couple runs. So many Korean travelers who visit Chiang Mai stayed at that guest house and the traveler who stays the next door was also Korean. Next day, we went to a mountain to do the tracking. At the beginning of the tracking, we join with other travelers, and among 5 of other travelers there was one Korean man. Meeting the same country person in other country was a somewhat nice and enjoyable thing. We had many talks with him and soon we find out that he was the man who stays next to our room. It was a really surprising coincidence! During the hicking we got closer and after coming back to the guest house we had a dinner together and even change our e-mails. Then, on the last day in Chiang Mai, we said good-bye to him and asked about his next traveling plan. And he said the same place we were going to visit ; Phuket. It was another coincidence and we said like "Maybe we could see each other in the Phuket also!" and laughed because probably no one in there thought we could meet again in Phuket, because Phuket was even broader than the Chiang Mai. However, amazing thing happened! Later, on the last day of our staying at Phuket, while waiting for the bus, we met him again. I can still remember the moment we saw each other and laughed with glad. It was a very short encounter but after that meeting, we all thought we were in a somekind of special connection, and we still have connected with each other when coming back to Korea.
Takgyun Lee / A funny incident / Mon 9-11
When I was a high school student about three years ago, I went to Busan with my friends for trip. We were supposed to look around the downtown in the afternoon and go to the sea in the evening. In fact, that was almost my first trip to the sea. Because I had lived in Daegu for a life where there is no sea. So that was the same case for most of my friends. We were so excited to go to the sea and play there. In the evening, we sat on the beach watching the waters flowing silently with breeze and drinking beer. We talked and drank facing the sea. After about an hour, we all came back to the house we were supposed to stay for the night. It was late and we were a little drunk. And we all fell asleep. Next morning, we woke up. Packing all the stuffs and being ready to leave, one of us noticed that a friend of ours was missing. We were all surprised and ran out to find the one. Following the trace, we finally got to the beach where we had spent the night before. All of us were panicked and hurried to find him. Then, one of us shouted from apart. We all ran to him and there lied the missed one. Half of his body was in the water and the other half on the land. We shook him to wake him up. He opened his eyes and spat out his first words. "Where's my beer?" Then, we all could relieve and laugh. Now we can say this with laughter, but remembering then, it was one of the desperate moments in my life.
Jeong Hyen Joo/ My Thrilling Trip to London/ Mon 9-11
My Thrilling Trip to London
When I was 17years old, I went to United Kingdom with my friend in summer vacation. We were so excited at that time because it was the first time to go abroad for both of us. But we didn't know that something terrible will happen to us until we went to London for our trip. When we were traveling in London, we could see a lot of interesting things. We visited Big Ben, London eye and Buckingham palace. We felt full of joy and happiness. When we decided to turn back to the hotel we stayed, we realized that something terrible happened. We lost our travel map! Not having a map meant that we can't go home. Because it was a first visit to London, we were strangers to here and don't know this neighborhood very well. We were lost! Our legs were shivering from top to the bottom and my face was as white as that of a corpse. We didn't have much money to use an expensive London taxi, and it was getting dark. We were so worried about this situation, but we didn't give up. We tried to ask the way to people. It was really hard to understand their explanation because our conversation skill wasn't so good. Anyway, we finally arrived in safety to the station. We had to use it to go back to hotel because it was getting dark and there was no time to walk. It was a first time to take a subway so we were very terrified to use it. But, we met a Korean guy who lived in London! He explained us how to go to our destination very kindly. We were so thankful to him. We could go back to our home safely. Although we were lost in London, and had trouble to go back to our hotel, we could see lots of wonderful architectures of London and met a very kind person. My trip to London was so exciting and thrilling. I would never forget about my trip.
Kahee Lee/ Something that happened during a trip/ Mon 9a.m.
A few months ago when I visited Tokyo for a week, I experienced an unexpected incident on our way back to the airport. The departure time for our plane home was in the morning, and the airport was quite far from our friend's house where we were staying. We were worried that we might not be able to wake up in time for our flight so we decided to spend our last night at the airport. We went to the train station and bought the ticket for the last airport express. We read the time printed on the ticket and it was written 21:10. However when we went to the platform to get on the train a few hours later, the train wasn't there. We had a bad feeling and checked our tickets again. To our surprise, the time we saw was not the departure time, but the arrival time. We ran to the station office and asked the staffs if there were any other way to get to the airport, but they all said that we will have to wait until the next day to catch the first train. When I heard that I just felt frustrated thinking that we will have to carry all our heavy bags back to our friends and it would be the middle of the night when we get back. Then one of the staff, a nice looking lady grabbed the phone and called someone. After a short talk she hung up and smiled at us saying that if we hurry and take a train going to a station nearby we might be able to transfer to metro that could take us to the airport. I really can't explain how fast we ran to catch that train with our entire luggage. At the end of the day we succeed to arrive at the airport. The incident of missing the train taught me a lesson that I should always double check the time of the transportation I will use. Sudden events are bound to happen when you are on a trip, and I've experienced that a lot, but this incident startled me the most.
Jae Hyun Park/A narrative paragraph about a challenge you faced/Mon 9am
(Introduction to Academic Writing (1)) Mon.12Jon H. Bahk-HalbergPark Jae Hyun(박재현)201101411 Due date: 2012/5/31 Topic: A narrative paragraph about a challenge you faced The Happiest Moment Turns To The Worst Moment For the first time in my 21 year long life, I confessed my love to one girl. I thought I found a perfect girl. Her eyes were as big as deer, and she had long black silk like hair. Besides her beauty, what I liked most is the fact that she is very talkative like sparrow. For me, just hearing her talking was amusing as I am a quite quiet person. One day I called her at late night and took her to the Yeoido. It was after mid-term during Yeoideo cherry blossom festival. Nightscape was very romantic. One side was dark Han River little splashing like a sea, and the another side was light from metropolitan tall buildings. We took a walk and talked for about 30 minutes. The more I talked with her the more I believed that she was one that I was looking for. The more I looked into her twinkling eyes the more I thought that I would regret if I miss her. "I have really important thing to tell you. Can you guess?" I said, smiling. "What? I hope that is different from what I expect." She said with little bit quivering voice. "Until high school years, I always thought that love is obstacle of my study and my dream. Even in the first year of university I thought same. However living alone apart from family is harder than I expected. I am experiencing emotionally hard time. I feel there are no true friends and also no one who really cares me. I hope to get a productive energy by loving you, so that I can go further. I love you." I said. She kept silence and left. What makes me even harder is that she treats me like a stranger after the day. My first love is crashed. Only way left is study and my dream. |
SunGyung Kim/ a challenge that I faced/ Mon 1,2
Edema and Swimming
When I was thirteen years old, I went through hard time, suffering from an illness I had. Even since I was younger than then, my legs swallowed a lot and this was due to the edema. Although I was such a cheerful and lively girl, I couldn't walk for a long time and, of course, couldn't climb a mountain or spend enough time in a playground with friends. Every time I walked for somewhat long time or had to stay in the same posture in class, my legs became swollen so much and even it hurt me. The symptom continued for nearly a year, and finally right after I turned fourteen and entered a middle-school, I had to skip my first fieldtrip due to this edema. On that day, I still remember, I cried all day long in my room, feeling sorrow from cannot going to there and gathering together with new friends. Moreover, it was really a hard thing for me to focus on lectures. Since I was supposed to sit in front of a small desk all day at least in class, just sitting and staying focused was a difficult work. Seeing me suffering from the severe edema, my teacher who really cared me sincerely, recommended me take swimming class every morning and try to lessen the pain. Thanks to her advice, I talked to my mother and decided to take swimming class every day before going to the school. It was not an easy work. I had to wake up at five, getting ready to exercise and preparing for the classes at the same time. Also, since I got a weak body until I started it for the first time, It felt like I was in hell. However, for six months, all the symptoms from edema got increasingly better and I could stay focused in a static posture for a long time during classes. Thanks to my effort for two years since then, I almost became fine with my edema and even participated in a swimming race and got a medal. Regarding this, swollen legs and edema was once the most painful thing that annoyed me, but this , at the same time, was the driving force for my health now.
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