The Renaissance Man
Life is a movie. Each movie has different scenarios. Life too, has different stories. Both
a director and a scriptwriter play key roles in making a movie. It is the scriptwriter who
motivates the director to sit on the director’s chair with a camera, and it is the director
who remains sitting there until he is done filming. If I am the director of a movie called
‘My Life’, then a man, who I named ‘Renaissance Man’, is the great scriptwriter of my
movie.
To me, life did not seem like a blessing at all, but rather a punishment. Life was boring,
and it failed to provide me a reason to go on. I suffered from this feeling of emptiness.
Whenever I tried explaining this void, my family and friends could not agree. There
was no empathy. It is said that the loneliest whale in the world sings a song in distinctively
high frequency of 52 Hertz, which makes communication with its fellows hard. I was
the 52 Hertz whale, and I had to put the feeling of emptiness into silence. It felt like
drowning into a colder and darker abyss, and swimming up shore seemed impossible.
I was lost.
Life is a movie because you cannot easily expect what to happen next. I too, did not
expect a change in my life. On the cold, rainy day of November, I happened to be at a
concert for free. All those stage effects and wild screams still did not engage me. Then,
the Renaissance Man grabbed his microphone, and I still had no idea he would be the
one to blow a breath of life into me. “You can cover your eyes, but you cannot hide your heartbeat”, he said. “It’s one life to live and one heart to give. You got no life to miss”.
His words sharply pierced through my heart, leaving an inerasable mark. His firm voice
so full of passion resuscitated me, brining my heartbeat back. He, who looked no older
than my age was too different. Unlike me, he was full of life and purpose. His eyes
glowed with hope and passion. Even I could tell his passion for music was unstoppable.
Since that moment, a question ‘have I ever tried listening to my own heart?’ echoed
crazily inside. I was embarrassed of myself, yet I was thrilled. I was thrilled because it
was not too late for me to become like him. It was not too late for me to change. After
contemplating long enough until next morning, I made a decision. Instead of questioning
endlessly about my life, I decided to have faith in myself. I will find what I love to do.
I will listen to my own heartbeat. I will live with passion just like how the Renaissance
Man does. This is the reason why I named him the Renaissance Man. He gave me a chance to reborn. The old corpse-like me was now gone. I was born again, full of courage
and optimism.
From that day, I gluttonously searched for things that I consider meaningful. Eventually,
I found out I have talent in making videos and translating Korean lyrics into English. I
started self-studying how to make videos using various programs. I started reading
dictionary to find better and suitable dictions when translating Korean lyrics. I was able
to endure the time of learning by reading cheerful messages the Renaissance Man post
ed on his blog. With the courage I got from the Renaissance Man, I fearlessly uploaded
my creation on Youtube.
Surprisingly, my videos received thousands of views, and how I first felt about this
extraordinary experience will forever remain indescribable. The 52 Hertz whale has now
learned to communicate with the world. The Renaissance Man is my mentor, my friend
and my scriptwriter. He set fire on my cold heart. With his words of passion, he made me begin. This scriptwriter of mine successfully persuaded me to sit on the director’s
chair, and start making my own movie of life. Now, it is my role as a director to continue
shooting this movie well, and to successfully end it with grand finale.