A dispensary of Oriental medicine has provided medicine to Korean s for a long time. Herbal medicine shops in all parts of the country take the responsibility of Korean health. My uncle’s medicine shop gave medicine to people and was my first workplace. I learned importance of family, how to work, earn money in the shop and the framework of society. Although my uncle’s shop was the worst place for a mere child and was the best learning place.
When I was young, I was a troublemaker. Every night, my friends and I gathered together at the school ground to make unforgettable memories, because we would attend different middle school after our graduation. We enjoyed firecrackers and playing with fire. One day, we went to small hill near by our school. We had begun to gather dry twigs and leaves. And then we dropped tiny ember into the dried leaves. Firewood made acid smoking in the dark sky. The flame had begun to brighten the surrounding little by little and small sparks embroidered light and danced in darkness. We felt great fun from this playing. However, our happiness was not long, because we could hear sirens. We desperately tried to put out the fire however our effort was ineffective. We did not have water and could not find anything to put out the fire. Few minutes later, the policemen and firemen came to us. We got into a panic. First, the firemen put out the fire instantly with a fire extinguisher and policemen asked simple questions to us like our name, school, parents’ number, social number and why did we play with fire in the mountain. Fortunately, the policemen did not give any penalty. They just called our parents and cautioned to us. After the events, my father agonized seriously about my thoughtless behaviors and how I would survive in a rough and difficult social world. Father decided to make me work at my uncle’s shop.
The shop was Korean traditional house. First of all, the uncle’s shop was located in huge brown five floor building. The shop’s name, The Korean tradition medicine, was in large wood signboard on entrance of the shop. The color of sign was green and signboard was decorated by Korean tradition tile. The Front side of shop was made up of glass. The front gate was wood with beautiful grains. In the shop, there was grass on the floor and the wall of place was painted brown clay. Two tall and long wood display shelves were located in both sides. Each shelf had medicines and its name with Korean and Chinese letters. The big fan was suspended from the ceiling. The information count was in the end of shelves with the telephone and nameplate.
I learned importance of my family. I met an old man at the place. His looking was about fifty to fifty five, very thin and lethargic. While I worked at the shop, I had not seen his smile at all. I heard surprise news that he graduated from Seoul University which is the best university in Korea. Only one percent high rank students attend the institute. I thought that at the very least people who graduate Seoul University work at a large enterprise or specialized job like scientist, doctor or lawyer and they are the most happiness people. Therefore, I could not understand why he worked at here because my uncle’s shop was not a big company and not a specialized job. However, his job was chopping and packing medicines in the small shop. One day at lunch time, the old man and I remained at the shop after others left. He was still working his job and I question to him how to enter Seoul University. He answered very shortly, “Listen very carefully your parents and teachers.” And I asked again to him, “Why do you do this job and do not you look like happy?” He said his story to me. He worked at Samsung before he came to the shop. He lived with his wife and son very happily. However, an event changed his life totally. One day, his family had a car accident while they were going to a picnic. The terrible accident took his son’s life. He could not believe his son’s death and children on the road looked like his son for a while. He drank alcohol to forget the pain and became an alcoholic and was divorced by his wife. After the divorce, he realized that he lost the most valuable to him and alone. Although the pain was too anguishing to endure, he had to quit drinking and be comeback for his son. I saw the most beautiful tears on his eyes. He said, “People try to find the most valuable things keep at their side. Be a good son when they live.” His saying touched my mind and reminded importance of family to me.
The uncle’s shop taught me how to work and earn money. My job was cleaning the workplace, packing, cutting and moving medicines. First of all, I had to clean dust in the place. I thought it was the easiest one among my jobs. Unlike my thinking, cleaning bothered me continuously. Although I always swept and mopped a workplace, another dusts waited me. Also the medicine dusts gave a pain to me. The medicine herb smell made me to breathe and swallow something difficultly. The most difficult my job was cutting medical plants with straw chopper. I had to cut the long and hard medicines. Medicines had to be same size and looking good. It took a long time because of the reason. Time goes on; the chopper had given me blister on my hands and cut. One day I cut my hand instead of medicines. Bloods flowed out from my hand like fountain. Another work was packing medicines into the packing paper. It was easier than cleaning comparatively. It was painful work too. First, I should classify medicines into each kind and measure the weight of the medicines. After this working, I put the medicines into the wrapping and heat the packing on the heater zone. Acid smokes made tears on my eyes and cough. Moving was the hardest work physically. These packing went into the box. After packing, I put boxes into warehouse. Each box weight was ten kilograms. I moved fifteen to twenty boxes every day. The pain just continued day after day. Despite of the pain, I had to obey command by workers in there because I was in social. After one month, my uncle gave wage and encouraged me. When I check my wage, I was shocked by the amount. It was much less than my expecting. I could not believe the fact because I worked very hard and working in the shop was difficult.
The shop taught social structure to me. Before I worked at the place, I did not know what the organization of society is. As far as I know, relationship among family, friends and me, and teachers and students were all. In this structure, I could act free relatively. Whenever I wanted something, I could request always to them. However, another rigid structure that I did not know before existed in the place. First of all, my uncle’s authority was absolute and command was rule in the shop. I thought that uncle’s power benefit for me because he has always doted on me. Unlike my expecting, I was surprised by his different behavior. He did not accept my grumble anymore and scolded me. Whenever I behaved like a child, he warned me that my fault can cause serious problems to everyone. One day, I disappointed about my uncle’s these behaviors. I did not want to work anymore and thought that I worked for only him. I had begun to do slapdash job. I did not cup medicines into same size and classify into each kind. The medicines moved to an oriental medicine clinic. After several hours later, my uncle came to me and brought me up to outside. And he said that the uncle’s shop has traded with the oriental medicine clinic for a long time however they want to break off business connection with the uncle’s shop now. He explained why he had to be strict to me. He had obligation to manage his shop well to pay wages to employees and workers had duty to follow the structure in the shop and work hard to earn money. I realized that the social structure gives proper obligation to people. When people follow the structure, our society can keep well.
The uncle’s medicine shop was the most impress place to me because of priceless lessons. Before I went the shop, I was childless young boy. However, the place gave indirect experiences how to survive in social world and I could expand my thinking and insight through the place. The old man in the place taught what the most valuable lesson to me was and it was important of family. Also, many hard workings in the shop taught how to work and earn money in social to me. The shop reminded the social structure to me. These excellent lessons made me to grow up to next step in the rough and difficult social world.