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.
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