In this blog post, we will look at how warm concern for the elderly and volunteer experience can naturally lead to the dream of becoming a Korean medicine doctor.
Academic experience and insights
Finding the best time to study in the early morning
While studying, I realized that even within a single day, there are times when I can concentrate and times when it is difficult to concentrate. For example, I can concentrate well in the early morning, but I tend to feel sleepy in the morning, and my concentration declines around lunchtime, but improves again in the evening. Once I realized that this was my biorhythm, I started studying according to it.
I did the subjects I was weakest in during the early morning hours when my concentration was strongest. The areas I was weakest in were language and foreign languages. I was naturally interested in math and science, so I enjoyed studying those subjects, but I found language and foreign languages relatively boring, so I needed strong concentration and determination. In particular, I needed to concentrate on memorizing idioms and literary and non-literary terms in the language section and words and grammar in the foreign language section. So, I studied language and foreign languages alternately in the early morning when my concentration was strongest. In the morning, I was sleepy, so I warmed up my brain by solving easy math problems, and during lunch, I walked around and reviewed what I had studied or memorized. Then, in the evening when I could concentrate again, I solved math and science problems and reviewed them once more before going to bed.
By making a study plan according to my biorhythm and sticking to it, I was able to study efficiently, and even when I wasn’t feeling well or didn’t feel like studying, I was able to overcome it a little faster by following my biorhythm. In addition, as I studied according to my biorhythm, I felt that I had to study without being ashamed of myself and without making excuses, which allowed me to continue studying diligently and develop a sense of responsibility and perseverance.
Major school activities and reflections
Developing my thinking in a reading discussion club
I felt that I wasn’t reading enough because I was only studying. In middle school, I liked math and science, so I participated in activities related to those fields, and I also participated in after-school activities and club activities that were related to my interests, so I didn’t have many opportunities to read books. I thought this was a shame, so when I entered high school, I decided to create opportunities to read books. That’s how I joined the reading discussion club. There, I got to hang out with various friends and had discussions that were sometimes fun and sometimes heated, and I gained a lot from those discussions.
First of all, it was good to be able to exchange ideas. The first book I discussed with my friends was “My Sweet Lemon Tree.” It is a book by J.M. de Vasconcelos, and probably everyone has read it in their childhood. When I first suggested discussing this book, I thought it was too trivial, but after reading it again and discussing it with my friends, I realized that it had a deeper meaning than I had thought. Through this book, we discussed issues that are essential in childhood, such as education, domestic violence, and communication between parents and children. I realized that we should not look at things simplistically, but rather from multiple perspectives. Through this realization, I was able to reexamine various things that I had thought of too simplistically and accept different opinions with an open mind, rather than being stuck in my own way of thinking. I had always been interested in violence and education, and I remember thinking that thinking deeply about these issues would be an essential quality for me as a doctor of Korean medicine, which was my dream.
Through the book club, I learned to think seriously and see issues from different perspectives. I am still working hard to communicate my thoughts more actively and to read and develop my thinking. In particular, while studying harder than anyone else to achieve my dream of becoming a Korean medical doctor, I felt a thirst for knowledge, wondering, “Is studying alone enough for someone who will be responsible for people’s lives?” The reading discussion club was very meaningful because it gave me the opportunity to think about the sanctity of life and morality.
Examples of consideration, sharing, and cooperation, and what I learned
Helping classmates with low grades as class president
Science classes are divided based on science exploration, so most students have the same homeroom teacher and friends in their second and third years. This was also the case in my class, and I served as class president for two years. In particular, I was able to serve as class president for two years because I shared my studies with others.
Everyone has different preferences when it comes to studying, but in my case, I tended to do better when studying with others. Studying together improved my efficiency, and since we were classmates, I thought it would be good for everyone to improve their grades. So, based on last year’s grades, I gathered friends whose grades had dropped significantly and those who wanted to study on their own, and we studied together. During breaks, I helped my friends by solving problems, teaching them what they didn’t understand, and supervising their self-study during the three hours of self-study time. During the 20-minute break in the middle of the three hours, we reviewed summaries and took notes together. At first, only one or two students joined the study group, but my classmates’ response was positive, and before I knew it, more than half of the class was participating. When the number of students increased at first, I couldn’t take a break during recess and had to help my friends study, so I felt exhausted and wondered why I was doing this.
However, as I helped my friends study and saw their grades improve, and as I saw them find direction in their studies through my help, I felt a great sense of fulfillment. Furthermore, the learning attitude of the entire class improved, and we were determined to study together without leaving anyone behind. As a result, the atmosphere in class improved, and our teachers wanted to teach us even more. In this way, I was able to experience a big change through sharing my talents, and I learned the value of sharing.
Motivation for applying and efforts and preparations related to career plans
Dream of becoming a Korean medicine doctor raised in a neighborhood with an average age of 75
I dreamed of becoming a Korean medicine doctor because of the atmosphere of the neighborhood where I grew up. My parents were the youngest in a neighborhood with many elderly people, and they lived their lives helping the elderly neighbors. Because my parents helped those around them, I was also treated with a lot of love. It would have been nice if I could have just seen the good side of my grandparents, but they were very old and suffered from various illnesses, and they often fell and hurt themselves. Even after receiving treatment, their pain would return, and there were many people who were sick all the time, so seeing my grandparents like that made me dream of becoming an oriental medicine doctor.
Western medicine seemed to have limitations in curing the chronic illnesses of my grandparents, and I came to believe that herbal medicine, which treats the root cause of illness, would be more effective. So, I chose to become a Korean medical doctor and began to study hard when I entered middle school. First of all, I needed high grades to be admitted to a preparatory course for Korean medicine. So, I tried to find an efficient way to study, and even if I didn’t feel like it or wasn’t feeling well, I made it a habit to study consistently. Of course, there were times when I didn’t want to study because it wasn’t related to medicine, and there were times when I wondered if this was the right path for me. But every time I felt that way, I remembered my grandparents when they were sick, and I imagined myself as a Korean medical doctor treating them. There is nothing more rewarding than relieving the pain of those I love and cherish and seeing them smile. I have continued to study with that dream in mind, and now, as a student in the Korean Medicine Department at your university, I will work tirelessly to learn Korean medicine and become a Korean medicine doctor.
