I fully understand the meaning of collaboration and shared leadership, and the ability to work with others. I appreciate the difference and diversity individuals bring to the community. I have effective interpersonal skill to finish the given task successfully with a sense of the whole. Learning how to think critically allowed me to understand how to identify assumptions and different perspectives. I have built communications skills that allowed me to be ethical and self-reflective in order to achieve greater equity.
“A lot of different flowers make a bouquet.”
— Muslim Origin
One of the important thing that I have learned in my life is to cherish diversity. Appreciating what people bring to the world. That's what broadens one’s world. I was born in Korea, grew up in China, and spent most of my twenties in Seattle, Washington. It allowed me to create a life full of different color, scents, and shapes of experiences and explorations that looks like a bouquet with various flowers.
When I turned 11, my family moved to Beijing, China. I remember the day when my parents first told me that we will move to China. I cried and yelled at my parents
" I don't want to go to China! "
Maybe because I was only 11, My knowledge was shallow and biased from the provocative news I once saw on TV. When my mother asked me the reason why I do not want to go to Beijing, I shouted,
" They don't have trees and I love trees! I saw it on the news! "
The response from my mother was very calm and gentle.
" What if we go and find out? "
I hesitated but I knew that there's nothing I can do to stop them to move to China. I reluctantly said yes.
A few months later, when I landed in Beijing and got into the highway, I saw endless trees lined up along the highway. It totally blew a mind of eleven years old. I yelled,
" Trees! "
That's when I learned my first lesson. I have to see and broaden my world instead of obsorving the information I get from the Television. I became curious with what I will encounter and how that can change my life. I instantly adapted to my life in Beijing.
I loved the food, weather, and people. Falling in love with the people was definitely another life-changing moment too. Building relationships with local Chinese people made me forget about all the negative bias I had before. They each brought their world to me and that became my world. I made so many friends there that I still consider to be one of the most important people in my life.
After spending about 5 years, my family decided to move back to Korea. I cried again.
But this time, I cried "I do not want to leave Beijing! I love it here!"
At the same time, I had this cheesy fantasy of attending high school in Korea from Korean dramas I watched. Forsythia flower beds and cherry blossom trees all along the school fences, walking down to school with a cute boy that I secretly have a crush on. That yellow, pink childish daydream was one of the reason why I convinced myself to move back to Korea.
It was during summer time when I moved back. There was definitely no forsythia or cherry blossom, but all the rose of Sharon and hydrangea along the road to school welcomed me. Although I did not meet the cute boy that I dreamed of, but I definitely met so many friends that made my days full of laughters.
I decided to attend the Seoul Tourism High School and learned hospitality. While learning the basics of hospitality, I admired the idea of living abroad. I couldn't wait to go to another country and broaden my knowledge and perspectives. That's when I decided to pursue higher education in the United States. The melting pot of cultures.
To gain opportunity to go to US, I first had to attend the university in Korea according to my parents's wish. After studying business administration at Soongsil University for about 2 years, I told my parents that I tried my best, but I have another clear goal in my life and that requires me to leave to the States. I instantly dropped out and applied to a community college in Seattle, Washington.
In my pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in media and communications at the University of Washington Bothell, I strengthened my understanding of interpersonal and intercultural communications. I met with people from all over the world and each people brought their world to me. Learning the culture and the way they see the world was very fascinating.
Pursuing a degree in media and communications have taught me how to appropriately absorb all the information I gained from different people and make it mine.
For instance, it is easy to just look at the flower along the fences and think its pretty, but it is not easy to see the meaning behind that flower fence. It could be there because its owner planted there out of respect for her/his memory with his loved ones. It could be there simply because the seeds were carried by the wind. These are things that you can only know if you communicate. This was one of the reason why I chose to study communications.
While I was studying about communications and human interactions, my interest in mass communication and media production grew. This led me to transfer to University of Washington, Bothell, where I can study not only journalism, but also media productions and mass communications.
Studying here in UWB was one of the best thing that happened in my life. UWB have taught me how making a media can open up a new channel to share my own world to the people. This instantly became my passion and I am looking forward to having a career in the media production industry to broaden such an experience. During my academic journey, I have led many successful filmmaking projects that require strict time and human resources management.
It takes a lot of time and effort to shoot one scene and editing. Finishing all of these to meet up the deadline puts a person under a great pressure. These experiences have made me fall in love with production-related jobs.
Through personal experiences and multiple academic productions, I believe I have what it takes to be part of the media industry. I have strong interpersonal communication skills and ability to handle multiple tasks to best support internal and external customers. I understand the importance of working as a good connection between groups and finding the appropriate jobs for everyone. I am eager to expand such an experience in the future.
Now I am ready to expand my experience in the real world. The real world where everyone brings their best qualities and make a great story together. I am eager to bring my personal and academic experiences to the world and contribute to making a great bouquet. Each experience and stories will be each flower and together it makes a unique, abundant, and extraordinary bouquet.
Credits:
다음 제작자의 이미지로 제작됨: Denise Jans - "Another one of my 8mm filmrol (red)" • rawpixel - "technology computer business"