When I first came to KMLA, I was quite surprised to see a few students who have participated in regional track and field competitions during their middle school years. To be more specific, I found one guy from the domestic program who used to be a district champion just like me, and 2 girls each having experienced 100m dash and shot-putting in formal contests. They are all 18th wavers, and I was so excited to have somebody within the same grade who could share stories of their own track and field experiences with me.
     The reason why I am so ambitious about track and field is because it helped me construct a healthy and positive self-identity. I sincerely wanted to share the chronicle of my track life with all the visitors of my blog who read this personal narrative and especially for those who is still foraging for their true identity.
     The whole story dates back to 4th grade, the time when I first had my feet on the starting line of the urethane track. I easily made it into the school track and field team, but I commenced as the high jump and long jump representative. I guess my intrinsic speed was good enough to provide considerable momentum vertically and diagonally but not enough to finish a whole 100 meters. The school track and field team was preparing for the upcoming competition in the district of Gangnam-gu. Yes, that is the same Gangnam from Psy’s Gangnam-Style. Anyways, we didn’t have professional coaches who would help us out, and all we had was a lazy PE teacher who would force us to come to school 30 minutes early to practice and leave everything else to ourselves. Obviously, the results were a fiasco. I ranked 4th in the high jump and about 5th(I’m not sure, but clearly I didn’t win a prize) in the long jump. I expected at least 3rd in one of those two events but after realizing the guys in front of me were in better shape than my PE teacher, I had to face the reality. So basically the only thing I gained from that year’s competition was a bowl cheap Chinese food I had on the way home.
           Then I spent my 5th grade in the Quarry Lane School, located in California. There I was edified by the typical western education system how much importance physical education has to the student’s lives, and how much inconsiderate the powers-that-be of the Korean education system were upon this issue. If I had a chance to do 20 meter dash drills with professional coaches and the right equipment every single day like I did in America, I would not have worn jeans and wool long sleeves to Korean PE classes which I though was extremely perfunctory. Fortunately, I was able to learn a lot of things within that year of exotic experience. I got a hang of how to excel in sports and push to the limits.
           In 6th grade, I was again nominated as the high-jump player of the track and field team. On the track division which I did participate, I somehow decided to stop in the middle of the run for some weird reason. Although unclear, I think it was because I spotted a friend of mine cheating and I wanted to protest by refusing to run. There I learned, life is unfair, and you got to live with it. Unfortunately, on the competition that was held on the very year, I also came back with nothing but Chinese food again. However, this time I recognized myself having so much fun on the track, which enabled me to continue diving myself into track and field in middle as well.