One essential key to happiness is opportunity. In many of the “things to be thankful for” there is either the fact that the thing itself provides opportunity, or the presumption of opportunity makes the thing even more valuable.Often that opportunity is only the thought that things can get better. But even that is cause for hope. Everyone has the genetic pre-disposition to never be satisfied. That is a good thing. It is why we are no longer hunter/gatherers. So, being definitionally unsatisfied, we look for that elusive satisfaction. And if we never find it, that’s OK. Because we had the OPPORTUNITY to find it. And in the hopeful quest, we found happiness, and a satisfaction of sorts. The “things” themselves do not make us happy, but the opportunity they afford does.
While I do not come from a first world country, I am very grateful and lucky to be in a pretty good place.
While we may live in peace, it’s good if we can also think about those who don’t and do what we can to help them.
I'm happy to have traveled time with these extraordinary children...
My 8 am student, Charles. He serves the church when he doesn't have class. He wakes up at four in the morning and prepares for school. He wanted to become an interpreter to help Korea and eagerly wishes for no World War III. Half of what he receives would surely go to UNICEF. He and his family have been helping less fortunate children since then and I believe that he's found happiness in giving. He's very keen with words, blessed, and he's a special child. He likes politics and religion. I smiled when he told me he enjoys High School Musical movies in the middle of my real world discussion. Hilary Duff is his definition of beauty. He would always request for assassination stories, world history and astrology. He always laughs at my drawing on his notes, the dinosaur and the volcano as I remembered. I've learned a lot from his sharing, the potato over a head and the paralleled line where hope and despair seeds scatter. He could be a great man someday.
Meet Hyuk-beum or Ran. He's my definition of cuteness and sweetness. At nine in the morning, my room is being filled with everything sweet and delicious, chocolates and candies. He's from Jeju, an island of oranges and strawberries. At 11, I find him already good at speaking and understanding English as manifested in his writings and letters. He would always write something about how much he misses his mom everyday. I could feel he's very loving and expressive. He hates bad-smelling feet as he would complain everyday. I would always apply baby oil on his allergies and holds his hand to prevent it from scratching the other. I gave him the baby oil as a remembrance. I taught him how to sing my country's national anthem because he likes its melody and it was a success. He plays piano, too. The most interesting story he told me was his favorite Korean drama, " My Girlfriend is Nine Tails". It's about a pretty girl who likes to eat cow. I received a notebook and a water color from him. I'm very happy for he made me four letters and promised to call me once a week. oh, I will truly miss you Ran.
Hi dear Lin. She's my ten o'clock student and she's one of the managers. She's 21 and a university student. She dreams of becoming an environmental engineer like her father. Reading is our subject and I pushed her to read a lot. She spends her free time at my side and we would read more chapters in her book. At first, I thought it was a pressure for her but good thing she admitted that it helped a lot. I find her very compassionate and friendly. She said that she really envies my knowledge and my stock of information reason why she wanted to read more. I was happy to have heard that. She taught me paper folding or origami, the strong bird, baby and old blooming rose. The most interesting story she told me was about her travel in the United States. Imagine, she and her family spent a month on or in an RV to complete the long road travel. Lin is very humble. She promised that I'm going to be the first person to receive the news about her getting a boyfriend. :)
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