Childhood
Growing-up
In university
After graduating university
Hometown and family
I feel a little ashamed to introduce my childhood because I can hardly remember those times. However I'll start briefly. I was born in a small town named Dochun in the Kyungsangnamdo province. It is surrounded by mountains. I grew up running up and down the mountains and watching them change their cloths everyday, every month, every season...... My father was very stubborn,and my mother was very witty. I learned fortitude and diligence from my father, and humor from my mother. I have three older sisters. Sometimes they were my friends,sometimes teachers. Then I moved to SEOUL when I entered the elementary school.
When I was an elementary school boy, I spoke in the local language. So, many of my friends liked to listen to my particular voice. I led them to play, and they followed me. To tell a little lie, I was a spiritual leader of that gang. We are good friends for each other even today! I began to realize that everyone should help each other. I also began to be interested in writing, performance play, and sports because my teacher praised my performance, writing diary, and playing soccer. So I played soccer, kept a diary, and performed a show everyday. I have never forgotten the teacher. Her name is Hong,Ki-Hwa. She always tried to help us so that we would make something of ourselves.
I got sucked into short stories as I grew up. I can't forget that I have shed bitter tears again and again under the blanket at dawn after reading "A Very Lucky Day"(a short story writen by JinGun-Hyun). It was the first time that I wept because of a book. On that night I began to read the book at 1:00am, and finished it with the rising sun. I felt fresh air rolling into my sore nose. Since then I have loved staying up all night; I became a night owl.
I applied for a newspaper club, named 'Inkyoung', when I was a first grader of Bosung high school. There were three kinds of tests. Writing, speaking, and standing! To speak of standing, we had to stand being beaten, and had to stand up all afternoon in front of the gate of a women's high school shouting "let's consider a writing-paper as my body!" Of course, I passed it. After a year, I became not only the leader of 'Inkyoung' but also the editor. At that time I thought that I could do everything once I just made up my mind. As time went by, and I studied hard to pass the entrance exam of university. Then I became a freshman of korea university.
I studied not only my major(korean literature) but also korean traditional culture. I joined a club named 'nongakdai', where I studied traditional culture, music, dance, and so on. Especially 'Pungmul'(it's a traditional performance, and also the name of instruments that are played in it). From 1992 to 1993, I led the club. I was a 'sangshae'(a leader of a performance group, playing the small metal). I directed many 'Goot's(veriety performance mixed with dance, music, play, song, and so on). We often practiced dancing, singing, playing 'pungmul' all day and night to show a performance. In that performance we treated many subjects like conflicting views between individual and team, social democracy, reunion of korea, and so on. Sometimes serious sometimes humorous. We also participated in 'Farm doing'(helping farming, learning farming, and talking about many problems of urbanization with farmers). We worked in the day time, and played 'pungmul' in the night time. It was a very impressive experience. It taught us reality. In autumn of 1992 I directed a big event called 'ko-yeon fastival'(fastival of korea university and yeonsei university). We showed a performance at the olympic stadium. We played in front of 80000 eyes of korea and yeonsei university students.
I have had a variety of part time jobs because I wanted to experience many kinds of works. Such as a daily laborer, waiter, instructor, salesman, and deliveryman. Also I wanted to see many cultures of other countries. So I participated 'Nepal-Ehwa medical service'(the doctors and students of Ehwa university have served since 1988). I served as a porter, and a deliveryman in Nepal from February 1st to 21st in 1996. And then, all members went back to korea except me. I remained as a backpacker and went tracking to Mt.Everest and Mt.Annapurna. On the way to tracking, I met many nepali and we became friends. I learned nepal language a little from them and tried to speak their language, so they liked me very much. Sometimes I walked alone all day long. Just up and down, up and down...... As I went up, it got colder and colder. It was quite hard to get to the basecamp(4800m), but I didn't even get mountainsick. Also I went to Lumbini where Budda was born. I dropped into thinking under the bo-tree like Budda. Thinking of future, thinking of life, thinking of society......