Who are you?
안녕. My name is Jiyoon and I am a Year 13 student here at Rangitoto College. Within school, I’m heavily involved in the Performing Arts Department and student leadership, and my favourite subjects tend to be English or writing centred—I love people and being creative. Lately, I’ve been mulling over my plans for after high school, or rather the lack of, and the thought of it equally excites and terrifies me. It mostly terrifies me though: to go solo, leave a sense of routine, and ultimately find my place in the world.
When you’re not reading, what do you love doing?
I always find ways to keep my mind and hands busy. My number one outlet is through the disciplines of performing arts. I love being on stage and performing for an audience as I get such a thrill out of it.
One of my biggest passions is dance. I love social dance and creating choreography, even watching others dance pumps me with adrenaline. Dance is a discipline which helps balance my mind and body, more than just a pastime, and through this shared spirit with others, I’ve made some lifelong connections.
I also love to sing; earlier this year, I got together with some friends to make a band for Korean Night. And just last week we got to perform the result of our hard work and preparation in front of friends and family. This was definitely a highlight of 2022 for me as it was so much fun and became an amazing bonding experience with everyone involved. I’m sure I will look back at these memories very fondly. In this way, music is another escape for me; anyone who knows me knows I constantly have my headphones in.
Ultimately, I think I love doing the things which really tug at my heartstrings. I find myself to be extremely sentimental and nostalgic: always taking photos, looking back at them, and making collages and video projects of my friends and family.
What’s a book you remember reading/having read to you when you were little? Tell us all about that memory.
I cannot imagine this to be an uncommon experience amongst kids who grew up loving books but I have vivid memories of reading under my covers with a torch after lights out (specifically the Geronimo Stilton series). I would go to the library after school and issue as many books as little I could carry, then bring them back home, stack them next to my pillow and start up a reading marathon almost every night. Because I shared a bunk bed with my younger sister, she would always get annoyed at the flashes of light across the ceiling of our room but each time I got ‘told off’ I would get more stealthy with it.
What are some books you’ve encountered at school?
I remember reading Catcher in the Rye in Year 11 and really loving it. It feels strange to admit as I haven’t ever been a kid who doesn’t like reading—if anything I’ve been quite the opposite—but I’ve always struggled with reading books specifically for school. It wasn’t that the assigned books were boring, that I was incapable, or even that I didn’t have enough time to sit down and read. However, just like me, I feel like a lot of students go through the phase of wanting to read (or in my case, needing to read for school), but being extremely unmotivated and not having the brainpower to pick up and finish a book. Catcher in the Rye took me out of this slump. It really shifted my perspective and the way I saw myself in literature. I think Holden really represents adolescent struggle, feeling a lack of control or agency at this point in our lives is not uncommon, so it felt easy and in fact, fitting to identify with such a character. I plan to reread it sometime soon.
What do you love about our library?
Probably the accessibility and comfort. The librarians are so amazing; they are always happy to help you out with anything you need. I remember using the library for history sources last year, and I was able to find the ones I did because I received help from the librarians who knew what I needed for my internal and more specifically, knew where I could find that information. I spend most of my free periods and lunchtimes in the library and it’s been a really nice place to study. This year, unlike the last, I’ve also been utilising the scholarship room. I wish I did last year too because the chairs in there are so nice. I think students should utilise the silent study and scholarship rooms to their advantage—especially as the Rangi Centre often gets so crowded during free periods—if they ever need somewhere quiet and comfortable to properly concentrate.
What are you currently reading?
Currently, I’m in the middle of reading Catch-22. I’ve always heard the phrase being used in films, and referenced in general pop culture and always wondered why it was so popular. Well, now that I’m aware of this crazy paradox I hope to ‘catch’ onto any and all references made about it. Although I am yet to finish it, I am finding Catch-22 really funny, embedded with characters and situations which are often so absurd and nonsensical, but that’s what makes it so good.
Why do you think people should read?
I think the biggest reason why people should read is to experience thoughts, feelings, and situations vicariously through other perspectives, namely, through the characters in literature. With books, you are able to enter different worlds, by leaving your own, and this can not only act as an escape but also a learning experience. Although it may be stating the obvious, whenever you read you can always learn something new. More often than not, you can learn a lot about yourself as when we read, we get a chance to observe, think critically, and empathise. At least for me, reading allows me to feel things that I can’t always put into words. Thus, I believe reading can become a source of self-reflection or even inspiration.
What are some mottos you live by?
I think kindness is the ultimate human quality; arguably the hardest to develop, and the most important. Other qualities, for example: being funny, witty, or intelligent, are also important and make us who we are, but I believe that learning how to be kind is the most important thing in life. Being truly kind, from the bottom of our hearts. This is because if you are kind, these other qualities become exacerbated and appreciated, while if you are not, they may eventually breed resentment. What’s even more important is to be kind to yourself, and stay true to yourself—I’m still learning to do this every day. I think growing up, I’ve always tried to change myself to fit specific expectations (or what’s considered the ‘norm’), and although this can be upsetting to reflect on, it has ultimately become one of my greatest learning experiences. Kindness, to the self and others, is so crucial and when you come across someone who is genuinely kind, they are the best people to be around.
Free choice
I recently came across a short story: Eleven, by Sandra Cisneros. To paraphrase, she says:
“What they don’t tell you about birthdays is that when you turn a year older, you’re also all the years that came before that year.” I just turned 18, but I’m also still 17, 16, 15, 11, 7 and 1. When you wake up on your birthday, you expect to feel your new age, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel your new age at all. I still feel like I’m 17, and I am— underneath the year that makes me 18. One day, I might say something silly and that’s the part of me that’s still 12. Or maybe some days I won’t trust myself, and that’s the part of me that’s 16. And for no reason at all, sometimes I need to cry like a little baby. Because the way we grow older is kind of like the rings inside a tree trunk, or those wooden dolls that fit inside the other; each year inside the next one.
As someone who gets really anxious about the future, and thinking of growing up to leave the safety of routine, home, and essentially my childhood, I found solace in this short story. Cisneros illustrates that no matter how old we get, there are still moments in life where we may feel, entirely, like a child, and more precisely that this is totally okay, and if anything, quite common. And although we continue to age, we always bring the past with us into the next chapters of our lives. In this way, I think of my birthday, instead of as a daunting signifier of time passing rapidly, as being a celebration of all the years that came before, and a welcoming of the next.
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