2nd Poetry Assignment: Hyuck Choi

The Pain of our Family

7am

A new day starts with the chirping of my pet parrot, LTE Optimus

Who is my only connection with my family elsewhere

Who is silenced with a touch

9am

The chemistry teacher acidizes my mind,

Pouring out oil-like facts,

Me absorbing the facts like an oil cleanup ship

Collecting them inside, unable to be used

1pm

My stomach is purring for the meat,

Then disgusted with the leftover

That will return to Gaia,

Only to find an unpleasant mother

2pm

I return to my robotic lectures

And think how I have been ignoring my ties with my family for days

5pm

I am walking back to my cement building,

Wandering in the ancient mother’s skin,

Wondering how much of her hair must have been cut

To build my home

7pm

I talk with my family through my pet

Not seeing its tiny waves that carries my voice

That carries my mother’s voice

That carries my father’s voice,

That carries my sister’s voice,

That carries bombs against insects.

11pm

The free imprisonment of studying is over

And I go the mini-mart full of food.

Full of trees obliterated into millions of sheets

Full of transparent harms

that take thousands of years to become a part of Earth

1am

Time to say good night to the stars that cannot be seen

To my family in our house

But it will never be a good night for the family

The family that was born before my family was born

Lying in bed

Asking for some medicine,

Who is silenced by their own children.

2nd PE assignment Subin Kwon

Everyone has right to live one’s own life. ―Waris Dirie, Desert Flower

 

There was a girl who seemed to be perfect. She was not smart but always top of her school. She was not nice but always beloved by pretty mother, great father and many thoughtful friends. She was not attractive but good at relationships and even elected as school president. Everything seemed to be perfect. Friends of her mother who wanted to take over her school uniforms used to say, “You must have no concern about anything, huh?” But she often felt endless emptiness. She did not have any dissatisfaction about her life, but she also did not have any affection at her life. She had no dream, hobby or something that she really wanted to do. The society that she has lived in for 16 years is a very strange place. Everyone has the same goal and follows it. All students who have different talents go along one way. ‘Be top of their elementary, middle and high schools and get into a good university, then get a good job.’ But she could not understand this social structure. ‘Who set the standard of a “good life”?’ ‘Who on earth can evaluate someone’s life as successful or unsuccessful?’ and ‘why do we try to follow the way that others want for us?’

     She decided to get out of the aimless life and find her own desirable life. Therefore, she entered the HAFS international course. She had never been to the U.S. and never thought of studying abroad. However, she has always been eager to have such an opportunity to follow her dream in broader world. To someone, 3 years of HAFS life could be regarded as nothing. To someone, studying and living abroad is considered to be nothing; to her, who lived her entire life in Korea, these things needed great courage and patience.

During the 3 years of high school, many hardships: language barrier, cultural sense of difference made it difficult for her. However, she never regretted because it was her own choice, which was the first one that she made with her own faith and perspective. Therefore, she could endure the adversities for her pursued life, wanted future.

2nd Poetry Assignment: Lydia Ra

This poem is really, REALLY bad because I've never learned how to write poetry before (ㅠㅠ) so I think all the rhymes and meters are wrong, but... please read with mercy! :P I was kind of trying to express family love with the old shoes at the entrance of our home. I hope I did it right.

Shoes

Dirty shoes

Scattered on the entrance

Of our front door

Trampled, crushed

By the feet of others

On the hard floor.

Wrinkled loafers

Black and soft

Leathery outside

Long heeled boots

Brisk and stern

But drooping tiredly

Once white sneakers

Fading grey

Comfortably flat

And more sneakers,

Still more faded

Dusty weary colors.

These shoes

Are not from famous

Companies or shoe designers

These shoes

Do not look new,

Or shine like wet shoe polish

But still

These shoes are

Beautiful, content.

To this day

I cannot learn

To place my shoes neatly

For looking

At those scattered shoes

Just make me so happy.

2nd Poetry Assignment: Esther Ra

One Sunday Night

One Sunday night I came down from my dormitory

To see my mother. She sat patiently,

In the cold, her cracked white hands

Clasped tight around the icy door of the car.

Two hours she had traveled to see me, two hours

For a briefly snatched word, the transient warmth

Of a quick embrace, and a ghostly kiss

Imprinted with lips chilled by winter night.

I gave her a hot bean paste bun, to warm her hands,

But she laid it aside and caressed my cold face,

Saying, I missed you, I missed you, I missed you.

How will you ever send me to university?

When will I ever stop loving you?

Peace drops slowly on my shoulders like anointing oil

And love blooms warmly across my cheeks,

Melting away my fear, my sorrow, my hunger

At her unconditional affection. And I know

Mother dear, those two minutes

For which you traveled two hours

Will remain priceless to us, glint like sparkling

Fragmented jewels in our memory

When once more we are forced

To tear ourselves apart.

2nd PE assignment Robin Bhoo

“No one is ever satisfied where he is.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince


“Am I satisfied where I am?” I asked myself.

“Well, let’s see.. I’m 16, and a perfect student. I’m tall, smart, handsome, sociable, athletic, humorous, and by all means, charming. I’m the best at sports in my school, I’ve never missed a single 1st place in English exams, and I’ve even been accepted to HAFS- the most prestigious high school in Korea: All my life has been full of success, and its just too obvious that I’m good. Really, can anybody be better than me?’’

 I lived in a world where I was a king,  where I knew everything and had everything. I lived a life full of ”bests”: Best backgrounds, best parents, best education... I was satisfied with where I was. I was at the highest, at the best...When I was 16.

 High school- a new world- came after a while, and there I was, lost in the deep sea of uncertainty. I could not see, for the darkness of the abyss obscured my vision. I could not reach, for the ocean’s pressure was something unprecedented from the past years of aquarium life. Lectures were beyond comprehension, and fellow students were beyond experience: Life was beyond my certainty. Was I still the best? Could I still succeed? Questions raveled up my mind. Confidence and self-esteem was gone. Doubt and cowardice reigned. If there was anything certain in this world, it was me sinking.

“Am i satisfied where I am?” I asked myself.

“I wish I were back in middle school. I used to be the best student, best athlete, and the best person. Life was easy and satisfying until I came here. Seriously, I suck right now. I want to escape from the darkness drawn upon. I need the glory of the past. I just can’t accept the fact that failure exists.”

But then, another thought struck my mind: Would I still be satisfied if I go back? Am I to be content with such vainglory, of being the best in a mere aquarium? The world I live as an adult is definitely going to be bigger than the ocean I’m in now. Am I to imprison myself in history and pretend like I’m still okay? I was undoubtedly sinking down. Now, the only thing left for me was to swim up again.

Years passed since I started searching for the sunlight above. I became the captain of our school’s basketball team. I participated as a member of the Korean national flag football team. I received straight A’s throughout my high school life. And now, I’m writing an application for the renowned Princeton University.

“Am I satisfied where I am?”

I know where I am, and if I was 16, I would probably have said that I’m the best and be satisfied with it- Just look at what I achieved! Team captain, national representative, straight A’s- but looking back at the past, I realized that something crucial was missing in my evaluations as a 16 year old: I was ignorant of my failures. Of course, admitting failures isn’t something fun. But the satisfaction isn’t worth it when failures I made are ignored.  I am not satisfied where I am, for I recognize myself. I’m not the “best” I thought I used to be. I make mistakes, and I makes failures. And I also know that these mistakes and failures will take me higher, make me better,  away from satisfaction.

2nd PE assignment Hyuck Choi

Before I start writing, I should start out by saying I am very sorry for putting my essay up late. I wanted to show a quote that I was really inspired by, put at the end of an hour of box ripping, all I was left with were fantasy books that I read when I was in Paris. So I decided to find a quote that I remember reading this year.
The quote that I would like to present to everybody is from the book "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer. '~A horse runs very well on four legs. It's what he's made for. But suppose he grew a fifth leg that only wanted to please itself. The other four legs would running and running, but the fifth leg- which we'll call individualism-would want to walk slowly to enjoy a beautiful meadow, or it might want to take a nap. Then the poor animal would fall over! That's why we take that unhappy horse to a vet and have the fifth leg cut off. It may seem harsh, but we've all got to pull together in the new Aztlan, or we'll all wind up lying in the dirt. Does anyone have a question?'
Although this was just kind of more like a filler up for extra pages, The second I saw these set of words, I closed the book and started to think 'What would happen if there were example such as a five-legged horse that has a useless body part?' That day, after pondering that thought for a few seconds, I fell asleep. :P However, when I saw our PE assignment topic, this was the second idea that popped in my head.
I perceived this quote as a criticism to our current world. We do not tolerate those who get in our general goal whether it has massive potential or not. Of course, it is human physocology to get irritated and furious at the more 'less adapted' people. However, this does not mean we are allowed to do what our instincts tell us to do. We must all have in mind that everybody has a weak point and there exists others who are well-developed in that particular area. In my case, I get agitated when I see my sister doing math, counting her fingers to add or subtract. I calmed myself and tried to teach her some human skills but it seemed like she just didn't understand numbers. That moment, I wondered what would become of her in the future. Regarding the status quo, today most schools inspect and grade our mathematic skill more than ever. Does that mean my sister should be abandoned from society for being unable to do some mental math?
I see this 'fifth-leg' as a 'different thing', but not in the way explained above. I see it as a part with a different, special goal. If four are for running, the other might be a more evolved leg waiting for its 'comrades' to become advanced. Until then, he might be the inferior one. However, after some considerate time, it will be clear that cutting/eliminating this extra part will have been very regretful.

2nd PE Assignment: Lydia Ra

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

When I was young, I used to be afraid of everything. The crashing of waves. The darkness of night. The danger of slides. The unfamiliarity of preschool teachers. They were all intimidating, and I had to cling to my mother and sister not to lose myself in the surrounding fears.

But years later, looking back on what a coward I was, I decided it was time to fix myself. Being a tearful, whiny scaredy-cat didn’t look good. It didn’t look good to other people.

And that was when I began the construction on myself. I tried so hard to build up my pride, higher and higher—but it was a shaky, heartless wall, fragile like a pile of seashells. I enjoyed convincing people that I was a brave, indifferent girl who laughed when she failed auditions and shook off bitter words like dust off a broom.

But like the remains of time still clinging to the bristles, I didn’t feel happy, like I expected myself to be. I felt empty, instead—empty and affected, an apple without its core. As I began writing poems, reaching into myself, and shutting out the noisy world, I was more disappointed in myself than I had ever been before. I thought I was a proud, happy girl, but what I’d been building up was vanity, not pride – it was a habit of pleasing myself with other’s comments, and finding joy in what other people thought I was. And then I realized how unwise I had been.

Now, I am trying not to lean on other’s opinions. I cannot always depend on people for the perfect image of myself – nor can I try to shape something I am not. I scream at the sight of mosquitoes and sigh when I fail a competition. I try to live the way I write poems, free and natural and sincere – just the way the real Lydia is. I do not have to crush my fears and emotions down, for I know now that hiding them from others does not get rid of them. I hope that I can find more of my original self through learning English, and build up what Jane Austen said is real pride without being vain—unbound by what others think, and contented in myself.