A Glimpse into the Life of Mrs. Kim
Harvard dae-hak-kyo deu ruh gageh hae ju saeyo. “Please let me get into Harvard University.” My nightly prayer in preschool. Born to Korean immigrant parents, my grandparents raised me. “Stay silent, get good grades, become a doctor.” That’s what I did. Sort of.
Junior year, my dad passed away. My English teacher said, “Write about it.” It was in that classroom where I transformed from a timid, high-achieving goody-goody to a fearless thinker who explored ambiguity through reading and relentlessly challenged the world through writing.
I didn’t go to Harvard or become a doctor. I did more.
Write about it.
Part 2: Graphing My Life
Part 3: Music That Moves Me
I learned piano at the age of 4. Before I could understand English actually. So while you probably think I’m a piano master, I’m not. I never got the basics down: sight-reading, rhythm. I learned my pieces by listening to a tape/CD and by painfully reading the music at a snail’s pace.
Surprisingly, I was really good. I had famous piano teachers. I entered competitions since the age of 8 and have won state and national competitions until I graduated from high school. My teachers figured there was no time to teach me basics when I had the technical skills and had competitions to win.
Where has that led me now? I can still play parts of complex piano concertos and etudes by memory, but I still listen to mp3s of pieces and read music at a snail’s pace.
Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is the most difficult piece I have ever conquered. It is what I was practicing when my dad passed away my junior year. In fact, I auditioned for a concerto competition to play with my high school orchestra when I got the news just days after the audition. When I listen to it, there are mixed emotions: mostly pride and sadness but also a longing for something.
Part 4: Snapshot of a Moment — 9:00pm on a Friday, 07/22/16
Part 5: My Video — A Typical Moment
Part 6: Famous People I Admire
Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-American writer whose essay, “Good Readers and Good Writers” changed the way I read.
Dr. Edel was my piano teacher when I was 11–18 years old. During this time, little did I know that he was a renowned musician who went to Juilliard, traveled the world performing, and wrote a book on one-handed music. I admire him for his humility, patience for his students, and love for artistic music.
Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) was a Christian author and speaker. Her husband, Jim Elliot, was a missionary who was killed by the Ecuadorian Auca tribe in the 1950s. After his death, she went back to the tribe that killed her husband and went to live with them for two years, showing love and mercy. (When I went to Ecuador in high school for a missions trip, I met some members of the Auca tribe — SO cool!)
Part 7: A Quote to Live By
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — /I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”
— Robert Frost
