Time Away From School
Time Away From School
  • Reporter Lee Ha-jun
  • 승인 2018.05.30 20:24
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This has become my last article as a reporter, which is pretty sudden. As I started this semester, I was full of eagerness. I wanted to do so many things, but maybe it was my greediness. I could not bear the stress coming from academics and other stuff. I wanted to take the semester off; a leave of absence. I made up my mind just before the three quarter mark of the semester, I did not go to classes, and I started organizing the things I had to do. I had talks with professors, my friends, and other teachers. I was actually participating in quite a few tasks. First of all I was a reporter for the school newspaper: The Postech Times. I was also a mentor for general biology and an organizer for the 5th TEDxPOSTECH. I was very sorry that I couldn’t finish up my responsibilities that I was in charge of, but, I think I just wanted to take some time off for myself. Luckily, nobody criticized me about my decision, which I was thankful for. I felt gratitude to many people for empathizing with me. Instead of blaming me, they consoled me about the hard times I went through, and told me to have a great time while taking a rest. I sincerely thank these people.

When I first decided to enter POSTECH out of all the universities that I had been accepted to, my dream was to become the best cancer biologist in the world. The first semester was pretty harsh for me. It is an excuse, but I did not understand anything at all in class, so I didn’t study. The grades came out, it was devastating for me, so I studied really hard the next semester. I managed to raise my GPA more than one point, which was successful, and I regained my confidence. However, as I recall my life over the last 2 years, I felt that it was high school all over again. I did my assignments like a machine, studied overnight, tried to memorize everything in the textbook (which I couldn’t). I lived like this for the past five years and was scared that I would live like this forever. I have now lost my goal to become a cancer biologist and feel like I just study because everybody else does. I couldn’t bear spending my life like this, and decided to make a decision only for myself, not for others. I asked many people that had left school for a while, and nobody that I know of regretted their decision. This fact gave me a great deal of confidence about my decision.

I will miss leaving school for a year, and there are many reasons why. Leaving The Postech Times will take the biggest part. I have been a student reporter for two semesters, not a long time, but not a short time either. I have been in this school for more than two years and what I loved about the last two semesters most; being a reporter. I joined as a sophomore, meeting freshmen and juniors from our school. I was grateful that I could meet new people that had their own thoughts, and were bright and clever.

I read my first article ‘Starting my new career as a cub reporter’, and thought about my reporter life. I wrote that my first priority was using easy English, and looking back, I think I did it pretty well! As you can see through this article, it is pretty easy to read. I had great experiences while writing news articles. I did surveys involving the entire school, interviewed professors, e-mailed with lots of professors in diverse universities; an experience I could have never had if I had not been a reporter. I am really thankful for having the privilege of being a reporter, and cannot forget any of the valuable things I learned. I will have a great time away from school for a while, and will return as good as new!