Undergraduate / History repeats itself; BACKGROUND or STORY - central to identity [4]

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story?

History repeats itself.

Napoleon and Hitler invaded Russia before wintertide in vain, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were assassinated on a Friday, and Shun Chan and Joseph, two ordinary boys, had to leave everything behind and pack their bags. Both did not want to move, but neither could foresee the difference it would make-- home was not the only to change but themselves, too.

Quiet and timid, Joseph grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the small town of Lynchburg, Virginia. A timetable and his parent's rigid rearing forbid him from really exploring outside his own neighborhood. Aside from school, Joseph rode his bicycle, read books he borrowed at the local public library, and tried his best to be a "good" boy. On his last day of school, little did he know that a plane ticket and a cardboard box filled with his clothes and favorite toys would be waiting for him. Where was he heading? His family was moving to Indonesia, a country poles apart from his comfortable town of Lynchburg.

Coincidentally, Shun Chan had been living in Indonesia, and had grown accustomed to its culture-- walking outside barefoot to buy a plate of coconut cakes from a passing by vendor was perfectly normal; The sound that the vendor's steam pipes for cooking would make would always draw him outside. Unlike Joseph, Shun Chan lived with 13 other boys in a dormitory far away from his parents and had the liberty of letting his free will run wild. He often left campus to get a bowl of the country's delicacies "Mie Goreng", an addictive instant noodle that costed no more that a few thousand rupiahs, or the equivalent of a few cents, and spent a lot of time mingling with the natives. However, the summer break of his tenth grade graduation, the once intended hiatus abruptly became a relocation into his mother country. Shun Chan did not care if he was Korean he did not want to leave what he believed was home.

And this was where both Joseph and Shun Chan collide. I am Joseph. I am Shun Chan. My past, present, and future make me who I am. Neither have I succumbed to my present Korean lifestyle nor have I chained to my silhouette of Indonesian yesterdays. I will never forget who I was or am and continue let all my memories, experiences, and conflicts form myself.

I appreciate all constructive criticism and ideas since I am a poor writer (at least that's how I think of my writing). Thank you.