jenny1991kr
Feb 2, 2010
Undergraduate / Just an essay about myself (my dad, South Korea) [2]
Please check for grammar errors and tell me what you think!
does it tell you who i am?
thank you very much!
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Prompt : experiences that have shaped your life, circumstances of your upbringing, any personal theme, etc etc . just needs to portray a sense of self.
My dad's recollection of the 1960's of South Korea is quite different to what you would expect. His stories are not of political turmoil, but rather the intricate complex emotions he felt growing up in a brave new world free from oppression.
Mind you, the mise-en-scene created inside my head is actually quite sparse; only rustic fragments of my dad's memory linger, as if hesitant to be out in the open, as if they would rather be edited back into the dark realms of his mind.
From an early age, I have been told time and time again that I look like my dad. My baby pictures show a face I distinctly recognize; the rotund face, a mushroom/button hybrid nose, an alarmingly large forehead- even for a baby: my dad's face.
When I reached my teenage years, I became sick of being like my dad. I wanted to be respected and recognized as an individual, not a clone. Thus, the next logical conclusion was to try my hardest not become my dad. Ironically, I became like him anyway.
Our likeness in character leads me to believe he is the only person who really understands the intense mix of emotions I feel under pressure. It is this bond that got me through the multiple separations of our family due to unfortunate circumstances.
Being young, sheltered and protected, it is easy to forget that my parents used to be just like me; that they each have a life story to tell; that they once had a shining dream that became dull, that became buried in the dust of marital and parental responsibilities. This particular anecdote was unusually hard to extract from my dad; from an uncertain point in time, there was an unspoken rule to never question my dad's past. I learned to accept this rule as a child, after I stumbled upon my dad's family documents and found that he was not always the oldest child.
It was not until my recent identity crisis did he reveal that he had the same experience at my age.
I was confronted with a split path. One path led me to a stable job with a considerate amount of free time to enjoy life and travel. The other was dark, murky and twisted; laborious hours pouring over work, tension caused by never ending competition and the golden doorway at the end was smaller than a needle hole. Although my mother wished me to take the straight pathway, my dad knew I had an intense passion to become the best; the crème de la crème. He regretted taking the safe route; settling for second-best. He asked me not to become like him.
I was overcome with sadness for his regrets of 'what could have been'.
So, he was right - I did not want to make the mistake of losing my dream right before my eyes.
But I do want to be like my dad - to wield an undying desire to become the best.
Please check for grammar errors and tell me what you think!
does it tell you who i am?
thank you very much!
===========================================================
Prompt : experiences that have shaped your life, circumstances of your upbringing, any personal theme, etc etc . just needs to portray a sense of self.
My dad's recollection of the 1960's of South Korea is quite different to what you would expect. His stories are not of political turmoil, but rather the intricate complex emotions he felt growing up in a brave new world free from oppression.
Mind you, the mise-en-scene created inside my head is actually quite sparse; only rustic fragments of my dad's memory linger, as if hesitant to be out in the open, as if they would rather be edited back into the dark realms of his mind.
From an early age, I have been told time and time again that I look like my dad. My baby pictures show a face I distinctly recognize; the rotund face, a mushroom/button hybrid nose, an alarmingly large forehead- even for a baby: my dad's face.
When I reached my teenage years, I became sick of being like my dad. I wanted to be respected and recognized as an individual, not a clone. Thus, the next logical conclusion was to try my hardest not become my dad. Ironically, I became like him anyway.
Our likeness in character leads me to believe he is the only person who really understands the intense mix of emotions I feel under pressure. It is this bond that got me through the multiple separations of our family due to unfortunate circumstances.
Being young, sheltered and protected, it is easy to forget that my parents used to be just like me; that they each have a life story to tell; that they once had a shining dream that became dull, that became buried in the dust of marital and parental responsibilities. This particular anecdote was unusually hard to extract from my dad; from an uncertain point in time, there was an unspoken rule to never question my dad's past. I learned to accept this rule as a child, after I stumbled upon my dad's family documents and found that he was not always the oldest child.
It was not until my recent identity crisis did he reveal that he had the same experience at my age.
I was confronted with a split path. One path led me to a stable job with a considerate amount of free time to enjoy life and travel. The other was dark, murky and twisted; laborious hours pouring over work, tension caused by never ending competition and the golden doorway at the end was smaller than a needle hole. Although my mother wished me to take the straight pathway, my dad knew I had an intense passion to become the best; the crème de la crème. He regretted taking the safe route; settling for second-best. He asked me not to become like him.
I was overcome with sadness for his regrets of 'what could have been'.
So, he was right - I did not want to make the mistake of losing my dream right before my eyes.
But I do want to be like my dad - to wield an undying desire to become the best.
