Wonder or Wander

For my dear friend , Last night I talked to a friend, who used to be a mother, a doctoral student, a part-time lecturer and a full-time employee all at the same time. Now she is only a mother of two daughters. She said, “For the last couple of years, I have lived quite different a life from the past. Too many things happened beyond my control. Now, even registering for a yoga class is too difficult for me. Nothing is easy.” Her second daughter, who just passed her second birthday, was seriously ill right after she was born. Her mother-in-law died suddenly. Her father has been ill for ten years and fell unconscious a couple of times in the past few months. She has been so busy caring others that until recently she couldn’t even think about how busy she was. Now looking at herself, she feels helpless. To everyone, there is a period of time with flood of misfortunes. It happened to me in the end of last year. I felt extremely vulnerable. Security was so alarming that even walking on the s...

Writing personal essays drill 4: a list of ... things WATER : Obviously water is vital to one’s life. But it can be also dangerous. So, in a developing country, you are extremely careful because germs grow in the water. You don't forget a treatment. After the treatment, the water smells disgusting and it looks dirty, but it is now good to drink. You drop a tablet to add a flavor. FOOD : One should eat. It is pleasure for most people to savor exotic dishes, but my judgment for a taste is very subjective. The mood at a dinner table dominates my taste of the dishes. Who prepared, who is sitting next to me, and what we talk about are more important than the food itself. What if you agree to me but are not so social? Fill your refrigerator with fresh vegetables and fruits. Those will keep you from unhealthy food at least. Lastly, be more careful if you are not rich, because we live in a country where the poorer the bigger. Next, you got me: EXERCISE . Gym membership, yoga, marathon....

Writing personal essays drill 3: On … (meditative: move from concrete experience to philosophical thoughts) In fall 2001, I audited a class in the computer science department while working full-time at the University of Chicago . I was curious about how lines of code would make a machine work. The course was interesting enough for me to audit the next one in the following quarter. Then, I don’t remember what got into my mind. I registered for the last sequel in spring 2002 as a graduate-student-at-large. Oh well, within the first couple of weeks, I painfully realized that I was torturing myself. My brain had little usefulness for the programming. I needed help, so I emailed my supervisor, Karen, to ask for permission to meet one of the teaching assistants during my office hours. She replied that she would leave the decision to my discreet judgment. So, I went to the TA office and got some help. But, I needed more help! So, I visited the professor. She spent time explaining how I...

Do you guys want to create an account at MySpace? I think it will be cool.

Writing personal essays drill 2: an anecdote (dialogs, gestures, and characters) It was yesterday. The elevator stopped on the 6 th floor. I had a disturbing feeling, because the person whom I least wished to encounter, particularly in a small place like this elevator, lived on the 6 th floor. The door was open. My instinct was unfortunately correct. It was him! I kept silent and so did he. The door was closed. What an uncomfortable silence! I tried to be cool, so asked with slight hesitation, “How are you, Sir?” He answered in a low tone, “I’m fine… and you?” while looking at the elevator door. I answered back, “I’m fine, thank you.” There was still a moment of silence until the elevator door was finally open on the 7 th floor, my destination. I walked out of the elevator. The conversation was very dry, but rather hopeful. On a beautiful day in October last year, there was a fierce fight in this building while I was out. When I came home, there was a police car in front of th...

Writing personal essays drill 1: a character sketch To my eyes, there was no man as handsome as him. To my best knowledge, he was the only one in town who wore black sun glasses. There was not a single gray hair on his head. He had a big belly that no one would attempt to attack. He looked awesome in his dark blue suit and shiny black shoes. He was my ideal man. Coming back from his office, he almost always had a package of yogurt. Did he love yogurt so much? I am not sure. During holiday seasons he used to buy pills for stomach ache in advance and placed them on a shelf. One of us always ran into them. In the evening of one of those days, he grabbed my hand and walked to a watch shop. Even when he finally put a watch around my wrist and paid for it, I hardly believed that he was buying one for me. At the age of eight I became a watch owner. Don’t imagine a Mickey Mouse or Snow White type of kid’s watch. It was a real one with twelve numbers and three needles. Worrying about jealou...