A moment that still chases me.

Some things are easier to remember, and some are easier to forget. I can remember my most embarrassing moment as if it happened yesterday. I’ve tried, over the years, to forget this moment, but it just never seems to go away. As I’ve gotten older, I can think back to that day and just laugh. My most embarrassing moment happened when I was in my freshman year of high school.

I was young and I always had a penchant for riding a motorcycle. I wasn’t old enough to get a license but I did not care. I started to save money for few months and finally bought a brand new motorcycle from Yamaha. (At that time, student in my age tried to buy a motorcycle because it was a trend and to get a girl.) Since I wasn’t so much different from the other kids myself; I bought to show off to the girls.

It was at the Itaewon intersection where my most embarrassing moment took place. After the volleyball game at YISS, an international school I waited until the people to gather around me, so that I can show off to both girls and boys. Just as I expected many people around 20 to 30 gathered around me. I started the engine to let my friends hear the sound of the engine too. I accelerated again and again until the motorcycle reached its climax, and in front of 20 to 30 friends; motorcycle excitedly flew off because I loosened up the clutch. My motorcycle ran in to the bushes with me holding on to its accelerator and running with the motorcycle. I fell down and everyone came in hesitant to ask if I was okay.

I WAS OKAY, but my pride, image, and dreams were gone. I wished I was dead with the motorcycle. I knew that I looked funny chasing the bike, and I knew that my friends were trying their best not to laugh. If I think of it now, it is just a silly experience that I had when I was young, but until now, it is my most embarrassing moment of life.

If I am the Headmaster

It is not an exaggeration to say that every school has a problem. Even the very respected school have problems. It wasn't different for the school that I am currently enrolled: Saipan International School. Every single time I find a problem, I always wished secretly of becoming the school headmaster. What will I do if I become a headmaster, what will I change and what will I do differently?

Saipan International School is one of the most respected schools in Saipan. However, despite the fact that it is a good school, lot of the students tend to argue and criticize the school. Cafeteria, Herman's bakery lunch, financial problems, and more. Well, if I think carefully about the school, the school does have a lot of problems.

First thing that I will chancility that most of the school has. One more thing about facility that I want to comment is library. I mean where ge about the school if I am the headmaster is Lunch problems. The school tends to have no proper cafeteria, which may sound very funny, but it is true. The students have to eat lunch either outside or in the classroom. This makes it harder for students in different grades tow bond. It is a very small school with a small student body, but I still don't know majority of them, especially the lower grades.

Second thing is the money and financial problems. It is the most expensive school on Saipan, yet it tends to lack many fain the world is there a library that students cannot go in. The Library has to be opened facility to every student. I mean it is seriously a waste of space.

Last thing I want to comment about is language. I fully understand the reason for speaking English during the class hours. However, I think the international school should respect the diversity of ethnic race in the school and allow them to speak their mother language during the lunch time or the break. Oh and lastly the student parking lot... no comment.

Memorable Thanksgiving

Did you know that I lived in the dormitory over five years? Honestly it wasn’t a great experience. However, if I think about my life when I was in the dormitory; I didn’t lose anything. My most memorable thanksgiving also took place when I was in dormitory. The reason why I hated dormitory so much was because of the restriction. I was forbidden to keep my laptop, cell phone, and anything related to electronics. I had to sleep before 11 PM when I had to work on my homework and study for test. I also had to tell my dorm RA where I am at every hour.

I honestly suffered so much going to school from the dormitory. I hated restriction and wanted to do everything in my way. I wanted to take a nap after school and eat dinner at 7:00pm, but that was also not allowed. I had to follow a specific routine that the dormitory staff designed. However, because of the fact that I had to everything in routine, I got to do something very special. It was spending my thanksgiving with my friends.

I don’t usually go out on the Thanksgiving Day, but it was different in the dorm life. I was frustrated from the fact that I had to go out on this cold day and waste my time with my friends whom I see every single day in my life. However, it was a great experience for me. I never imagined spending a quality family time with my dorm mates. We all went to down town and watched movie, play bowling, and ate dinner in outback. We also took a dorm photo. I thought the whole idea of going outside in the Thanksgiving was a stupid idea, but it wasn’t. I felt like my dorm mates were my family.

It was really a great experience because I never thought I would have this much fun hanging around with my dorm buddies. They weren’t my friends anymore but a close family who lived in the same place as me. I honestly still think that dorm life was miserable, but the experience that I had in my dorm life was extra extra memorable.

My literary Hero Atticus Finch

My literary hero is Atticus finch, a fictional character in the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird. The reason I chose him was because of his moral conduct. He lived in the time where racism was active, yet he chose to help the people underprivileged. He knew that it will consequently ruin his reputation for helping out the black, but he chose to do the right thing. He has shown the readers what people back in time should have behaved like.

Atticus, a lawyer and a father of Scout gets a case of defending a black man. However, it is very hard for him to choose because of the racist society. Atticus decides to defend the black man Tom Robinson because of his moral. Tom is accused for raping a white girl, but Atticus realizes that Tom is innocent. Atticus tries his best to defend Tom and gives various reasons that Tom is innocent, but loses a trial.

Another character in To Kill a Mocking Bird who can be well foiled is Bob Ewell, who accused Tom for raping his daughter, and gets mad at Atticus for defending black man and making him look like an oaf in the trial. He was a typical white person living in white supremacy. As you can see, people in the time were lot like Bob Ewell. However, Atticus was different.

He showed that many black people suffered from the fact that they are black. Atticus Finch did the right thing which was to stand on the right side when he knows that it will also put him in danger. My main reason for choosing Atticus Finch as my literary hero is because he was brave and did what he had to do. In other word, he was not a hypocrite like the many people back in time or even today. He is my literary hero: Atticus Finch, who taught me a great lesson.

When you open the door?

I see bees, ants, coconut trees, and things that I couldn’t see back in Korea. This is what I see when I open the door in Saipan. In contrast, I see beautiful trees, yard, dog, and things that I love so much when I open the door in Korea. However, it is almost impossible to change the things I see in Saipan because almost all of them are natural things. However, if there is one thing that I want to change from what I see now when I open the front door is: half naked man hitting a coconut tree with his machete.

I lived in Saipan for one and a half year and there is something that I can’t seem to tolerate. It is half naked man with his machete. It is scene that is hard or impossible to imagine in Korea. I mean come on… half naked man with machete in Korea? It is going to be on the top news. However, in Saipan, it is typical to see Chamorro swinging his machete. I have to be honest with myself; it freaks me out every time I see it.

I don’t know how other people tolerate their neighbor walking around half naked with a huge machete. First of all, it is really scary. It’s not like he is smiling and saying hello to me every time but rather stare at me chewing beetle nut. Did you see a Chamorro chewing his beetle nut carefully? You can tell that these people aren’t normal. Their eyes are red and teeth are black. Now that I gave you some imaginable description THINK. Red-eyed Chamorro half naked swinging his machete EVERY SINGLE MORNING. Now can you get the picture?

What I want to see when I open my door is beautiful trees with bird chirping and neighbors with their night gown and a cup of coffee reading news paper. Maybe that is too much for Saipan… but at least… people shouldn’t take their shirt off and swing their machete every morning and stare at their neighbor.

Paradise

My idea of paradise is to live everyday like Friday 2:45 P.M. not 2:44 or 2:46, "2:45 P.M." This is the time when i feel the most happiness. This is the time that aware me that I'm this close to weekend. The reason for me liking Friday is very obvious: sleep, no school, and free time. it is not an exaggeration to say that most of the students will agree to my idea. I mean literally Friday is the best day in the whole week.

when the clock hits 2:30 PM in Friday; I start to think about what i should do on the weekends. However, i don't think to far ahead because i know that i have to start working on my homework Saturday 7 PM. these days, i have a weekly routine of visiting Karaoke on Friday. I think it is a very good way to get rid of all your stress.

'IF' I could live everyday of my life like Friday 2:45pm, it will be an absolute paradise. I don't feel too much stress even though I get a lot of homework on Friday, BECAUSE I don't have to work on it that day. i could just step one side away from all my homework and study that i have to do if it was during the weekdays. My Friday schedule is rather simple.

2:45pm- 3:00pm = I get home and clean myself up.

3:00pm- 5:00pm = i take a good 2 hours nap.

5:00pm- 6:00pm= i check my email, facebook, and news.

6:00pm- 7:00pm= dinner time

7:00pm- 10:00pm= i hang out with my friends (karaoke, movies, driving, etc)

10:00pm- 10:30pm= I take a shower and get ready to sleep

10:30pm-12:00am= i watch movie on my laptop until i get sleepy

I mean really... HOW AWESOME IS THIS? a full day after 2:45pm just for yourself. This is really the definition of what paradise would stand for a high school student in his junior year. for these reasons, my idea of paradise is to live everyday like Friday 2:45pm.

My Hero

My hero was a high school drop out; he could not speak fluently until he was nine years old; his parents feared he was mentally handicapped; and he was the greatest genius of science. Who is this science genius? My hero Albert Einstein
.

When Albert was four years old and sick in bed, Albert’s father gave him a compass. Albert practiced turning the compass every which way. Soon becoming fascinated by the new toy, no matter which way he turned it, the needle would always point in the same direction, and much in the way of Einstein’s genius and fascination with nature, pointed him toward a life of scientific discovery.

However, it was not his scientific field that I was amazed about, but it was his philosophy that I loved so much. He had a vision and did everything in his way. I truly admire his action because most of the people don’t have a gut to do so. I once tried to drop out of school because I knew that the materials that we are learning right now are pretty much useless after 10 years. We won’t know what quantum physics was and we might also have a hard time remembering the teachers. This might somehow sound very typical for a boy in a high school, but if you think carefully, really these materials are not going to help us to be a better person or anything. Will Warren Buffet, the second richest person in the world remember the materials that he learned in his junior or even senior year of high school? I doubt it.

When I am older I hope to achieve something as great as he did, but also build my own philosophy of life. While Einstein is a good role model I cannot always look up to him for everything I need and that I must find my own path just as he found his. That is why Albert Einstein is my hero.