Think Big

I had a lot of time these past few days; a lot of time to sleep, read, and think. I'm still getting used to the time differences (I haven't taken a nap today yet! But I can feel myself about to crash.) Beginning from my wait at Dulles Airport, I began to read Think Big by Ben Carson. I have heard it's very similar to Gifted Hands but it's been a while since I read that so I don't know how different they are from each other. Having finished the book, there were two main messages that I can take from the book.

1. Do your best in everything that you do. He emphasizes doing your best in whatever class you take whether it seems relevant to you at the moment or not. In school, I often heard "How is this going to help me in the future?" or often I thought to myself "Oh, this isn't going to be on the test. I don't need to know this," compromising my learning. However after reading the book, I'm reminded of what I stood by my freshman year in high school. It's kind of silly but my freshman year, I tried to do my best in every single assignment I had from school whether it was something simple or complex. By senior year, I kind of pick and chose and I thought was important and distributed my effort through the level of importance (which is probably not  good). But you never know what knowledge will be relevant or important to you in the future. Ben Carson tells the story of his brother, Curtis, learning geometry. He disliked geometry while learning it, yet persevered with his mother's encouragement and received and A in the class. And now he is an engineer, which math is definitely required for!
2. Read, read, and read. Reading his story on how reading brought him to where he is now makes me want to read more. I haven't read that much in high school asides from required reading from English class.

I really liked his acrostic for THINK BIG.

T = talent

H = honesty

I = insight

N = nice

K = knowledge

B = books

I = in-depth knowledge

G = God

I agree with his principles and I especially liked what he said about being nice.

Be nice to people

- All people -

Even when you don't have to be.

Everybody is important.

God taught me throughout the year about the importance of being nice to people, all people. I believe it goes back to the command that Jesus gave to his disciples when he told them to love each other as he loved them. By this simple act of kindness throughout the day whether it's greeting someone with a smile or by fully giving my attention to someone's story of his or her day, I get to share Jesus' love with them. And this is out of an overflow of the love I have received and continue to receive from Jesus. I want to treat every person I meet with this niceness and kindness Jesus receives me.

By the way guys, I successfully traveled on the Korean metro alone. I went from Children's Park (어린니대공언) to Oksoo (옥수)!

Having stayed in Korea for three days, here are the observations I have made:

1. Everything in the metro is labeled in Korean, English, and Chinese. I guess there are a lot of Chinese people who travel in Korea (I saw some!). There are so many vendors and stores within the metro itself. The metros also have these glass walls that prevent you from falling into the train tracks. The doors to the glass wall only open when the train arrives.
2. It's like half of the Korean people have brown hair. So many brown hairs.
3. All the Korean actors on TV have double eye-lids. All of them. (Since there was nothing for me to do, I watched a bit of TV, mostly American shows, but some Korean).
4. I can understand most of the Korean spoken. I just have difficulty speaking. It's hard speaking, especially since I haven't spoken in a while.
5. I miss the blue sky and the fresh air at home. I guess due to pollution and the rain season, the sky is always cloudy. Apparently it's going to start raining a lot from next week. Ah. Oh yeah, there are plenty of umbrellas in Korea!
6. There are so many cars in these narrow streets (I can't imagine having to drive here) and there are so many people. Well, it is the city. 

I went to my parent's Korean church (center) today and I was surprised by how familiar the building was to me. After ten years I still remember it! The buildings around it have drastically changed, but the center remains the same as I remember it. I have some really random memories within the center. I remember one time someone was using the bathroom and I accidentally turned off the light because I didn't know they were in it and left (oops).