Throughout my school years, I used to be such a model student with a shy face. I was silent and hardly scolded by teachers. Attending Dae-cheon Middle School, I had a routine daily life, playing basketball after school and studying at home. I kept doing both types of writing: poetry and essay. Sometimes I wrote a logical exposition of my views on political issues. Fortunately, I won many prizes in writing contests in my school. When I moved to Haeundae, I had to part with my old friends and entered into Haeundae High School.

During three years in high school, I received a completely standardized education. I think the most representative place where the survival of the fittest rules is a Korean high school. All the students have to stay and study at school between seven in the morning and 11 every night. After school, most of them go to other private educational institutions to keep studying. Regardless of an individual aptitude, everyone has to take the same courses and is graded according to the number of correct answers to the multiple-choice questions. And, they are ordered from the top to the bottom depending on the result of the test. Also, when learning literature, they are not allowed to appreciate works or interpret authors’ thoughts on writings by their own mind. Instead, they need to memorize what a literature teacher explains about the works to prepare for the College Scholastic Ability Test, which is a critical exam to get into a college. This weird education system causes a few students to feel extremely ashamed and attempt suicide.

In summer five months before the CSAT, as a representative, I took part in a big wiring contest held at Seoul National University, the most prestigious college in Korea. When leaving for Seoul from Busan with the encouragement of principal, I was certain of winning a prize and getting into the college through a special screening. My guess was wrong. It was the largest national contest, and a great many of students good at writing participated in the contest. A proverb, “A big frog in a small pond” suddenly came home to my heart. I returned to Busan empty-handed, and focused on the CSAT.