A Teenager's Home Away from Home
Life as a high school student in Korea is really tough because of so much hard works to do in such a young age. Imagine how much harder it would be to go all these through away from home. My sister Yooli, an 18-year-old girl, had to live away from home and live at her school dormitory for three years. It was according to her school rule so she had no choice but to live at her school. Even though we are close sisters, we often share positive stories rather than negative ones. We intentionally avoid the chances to remind all the hardships in our lives whenever possible. However, I thought an interview can be a great chance to know more about my sister's real thoughts deep inside her mind. The mood was awkward in proper settings, but we gradually adapted and concentrated on the situation.
To ease the mood, I asked her to grab some snack and said, "I'm going to properly interview you." She said, "Well, go on. I'm actually looking forward to it." Then I started off by asking an overall living condition at her school dormitory. According to Yooli's response, the overall living conditions at her school was vey poor. She had to share a room with 4 other roommates that she was not familiar with (Roommates were randomly organized by the school). It meant 4 distinct people had to adjust each other's lifestyle. She added, "If you can think of the concept of 'house' and 'home', it is pretty clear to understand. The school dormitory is a 'house' where we sleep and take a shower. It was definitely not our 'home'." Then I said, "So, can you explain more about the difference between house and home? It's not really clear to me as you said." She said, "Basically, I personally believe that house is where you never get any rest for both your mind and body. It is just a space you can lie down and have a sleep." Even though it was my first question, I already felt sorry and sad for my sister.
It would probably have been so hard for my sister to live in such environment studying more than 11 hours a day. All the text messages that we use to send to each other saying "I wanna go home" as a joke suddenly popped up in my mind. I got myself together and said, "When it comes to living, what was the biggest difference between family and friends?" Her immediate response was "Oh, it's not simple as you think." I wondered why. Family is family and friends are friends. What can be so complicated? She said, "You know, school friends and roommates are different. I'd rather spent most of my time with class friends rather than roommates. Roommates consist of students from different majors. Apart from me (Japanese major) all other roommates were from English, Chinese, and international major. So I'd rather call class friends my school family rather than my roommates. See? How long it took to explain all this and that to you about the subject? It's so complicated." She sighed. I looked back how stupid I was to whine about my relationship with friends not knowing how my sister's situation was.
However, she used to tell me lots of fun stories about her life at school. I asked, "I know you also had a lot of good memories, what were the good moments at school?" She replied, "Well… I'd rather say it this way. I learnt a lot of valuable lessons at school. I believe these are something that I would never be able to learn if I did not live away from home. First, I learnt how important it is to have a 'me time'. For 3 years I was always surrounded by people. Of course it was same for my friends too. In other words, we did not have a chance to have a calm time to be ourselves. I found out that without 'me time', I was mentally unstable. So every single day, I imagined going back home and have a peaceful time alone. In the same context, I learnt how valuable my home and family are. During 3 years of time at school, I dreamed of the last day at school to come and to go back home."
I was surprised how much my sister thinks the home an important place. She really cared a lot about the family and her surroundings. I always thought that she was indifferent to family matters because of her works but it was my complete misunderstanding. Gathering all the memories of our conversation throughout 3 years of her high school life and the interview contents, I was so touched by her words. Because of a six-year age gap, I always treated her like a baby sister. But after the interview, it feels like she is a grown up. Her thoughts are so mature and I was able to feel that during the interview. Now, she has a new start ahead as a university student. Luckily, we can live together whilst she goes through the new chapter in her life. I am already excited to talk to her in her age 24 recalling the memories of both high school life and university life.
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