Essay

Paul Kang
Hyo Joon Park
2007/05/25
I am Korean. I am American. I am bilingual. I am a highschool student. I am a son. I am a big brother. I am a friend. I am an athlete. I am a teacher. I am a columnist. I am Park Hyo Joon.
Born in New York, Buffalo, my life is full of moving back and forth the Pacific. Half of my elementary school years were in Atlanta and Cincinnati. I have graduated both American and Korean elementary schools. After elementary school I have stayed in Korea.
My highschool life is another big chapter of my life. When only half of my highschool years were left, I made a decision, a big one. I told myself why not go to college abroad? How about in New York? When I told my parents about it, they didn't mind my enthusiasm, and told me to give it a try. Looking back at my situation, I cannot be more thankful for my family's support. It is rather easy to transfer from an ordinary highschool to a foreign language highschool, but quite unique the other way around. A foreign language highschool would surely be more helpful to me but the intense courses and the lack of time seemed to be a big challenge ahead worrying many people. But I was ready. So, I took some tests, prepared some documents, and transferred to my new Daeil Foreign Language Highschool. Now I am participating in the schools overseas program.
In school, participating in our school soccer team we ranked third in our school tournament. On Saturdays, with some school friends also in the schools overseas program, I teach elementary school students English. There is no financial benefit but teaching children is very rewarding for me. I'm also in Logos, the school debate club, and have participated in many tournaments. To add, our team had done well in the Mock Trial competition held in Korea, and have been elected to go to New Jersey to compete against other teams from the states. Since I was a child, I have always been interested in martial arts and enjoyed major competitions like the PrideFC, UFC, and K1. Now I am a columnist for a well known web site.
America, the land of opportunity is a multiracial pot with so many multifarious people there could ever exist. Except for me, I am not in the states, yet. The school I choose is like no other, I am like no other.