There are a lot of people that impact my life. For example my 2nd Grade homeroom teacher who helped me improve my Korean, when I first moved to Korea, my high school teacher who help me fight a slump when I was a freshman and my dad who teaches me skills to live a better life. Most of all there is my mom. She taught me how to dream. When I was younger my mom was very busy. She worked a lot and she didn’t have much time to play with me.
In our neighborhood there was a small theater. When my mom had time she took me to that theater and we watched movies together. Well, actually, we went to that theater when I was a baby. While she escaped in the fantasy of the film, I slept in my stroller or on my mom’s lap. Going to the movies has always been ‘our’ thing, and even though I don’t remember all of the movies we’ve seen, the darkness of a theater has always offered comfort. Beyond the smell of the popcorn and the thrill of entering another story space, it’s experiencing another world together ,a world we connect to outside of our existence, that brings a familiar sense of ‘home.’ so movies have always been more about life to me, not just entertainment.
When I was in elementary school we watched the movie August Rush. The production, the scenario and the music, everything was perfect. August Rush inspired me to learn more about film making, so I began to watch movies more critically—focusing on things like story line and camera angle. I wrote down my observations, and these evolved into movies reviews. Doing this made me feel alive; it made me feel real. I didn’t want to just watch movies and review them, I wanted to make movies. More and more these days, inside, I feel a drive to connect to the world through movies. I hope to become a film studies major and I am taking steps to make that a reality.
At school, I’ve started a movie-making club with my friends. Our goal is to learn as much as possible about making movies and to actually make short movies ourselves. The drive I feel gives me a sense of purpose, maybe grounding me in a place I can call home. When I was a freshman, I was going through a slump. I didn’t want to study. I didn’t want to make friends. I didn’t want to do anything. I cried every day. I thought I would rather end my life. But, still, every Saturday my mom and I watched movies on our TV, and as we watched we talked about the plot and our observations. That was really the only time me and my mom talked to each other, and it was the only time I felt alive. Looking back at that time, now I realize that it was my mom who made me want to do something. ‘She’ made me feel alive.
I now know that my mom wanted to draw me out of my slump, and movies were the way she found for us to connect Our world of movies brought me back to life. In this world, we have warmth and love—we have home. No matter what happens, no matter where we go, we dream together.
Thank you