There are many things I appreciate about my Korean culture. Whether it be the delicious food or wearing my hanbok on New Year’s Day, I’ve always loved celebrating the rich heritage that I represent. But, like every culture, Korean has its disadvantages. Never wise enough, experienced enough, or mature enough, my youth has never been a desirable state in traditional Korean culture but rather a restrictive limitation—an obstacle. In my house, I was simply “too young to...

What is it about the California weather that everyone seems to love? It is comfortably warm, blindingly shiny, and there is never a season. Growing up in Los Angeles, this weather pattern was normal. As I entered my first year at University of Southern California, everyday, I woke up to the rays of sunshine caressing my body and the warm breeze fondling against my face. Everyone loved the weather and constantly talked about how nice it was. Though I loved...

A couple hundred years ago, there was no blue. Homer, in the Odyssey, described the seas as “wine-dark.” William Gladstone described it as “honey.” Today, we firmly believe that the seas are the color “blue.” But, what if it is just another tentative term that our society uses to hold the place for a color that is yet to exist? Challenged and driven by this intellectual riddle, I see that to completely understand truth, I must understand the changing nature...

I am constantly thinking. One simple word can ignite a web of ideas in my head—quite literally a brain storm. Sometimes, I venture into the narrow and specific; other times, I venture into the random and open-ended. “If the Founding Fathers believed ‘all men were created equal’, why did they have slaves?” “Is stealing immoral if you were stealing for a starving child?” “If deaf people can’t hear, what language do they think in?” Regardless of which way...

My global studies class started as an interest but soon enough became the motivation for my future aspirations. We read a lot of articles on various indigenous groups around the world. It was very eye-opening to look into groups that were not often, if at all, mentioned in the media. My favorite piece was on the homosexual teenagers in South Korea who were partaking in resistance movements in order to gain the right to freely express their identities. Meanwhile, many...