By Seoh Bong-seong
This is a true story that took place recently in the United States.
A boy and girl, twins, were born to alcohol- and drug-addicted parents. Neighbors discovered the adults' neglect of their children and informed the authorities, which resulted in the state taking care of the children for nearly 10 years.
One day, however, the parents swore off their addictions and vowed to take good care of their poor children. After regaining custody, the father worked for about a year as a plumber on many sorts of jobs to make money for the family. The mother, however, soon succumbed to her need for alcohol, and the twins' father soon followed suit.
He suddenly stopped working, so the kids were left to earn money for the family. They took any jobs they could find such as babysitting, polishing shoes, mowing lawns. When they returned from school each day, they would then clean the house and fix meals for their parents, who had done nothing but indulge in their addictions. The mother and father spent all of their welfare benefits on drugs and alcohol.
Last year, when the children were high school seniors, their parents vanished, leaving them to fend for themselves. School officials sought to have them sent elsewhere in care, but the boy and girl did not want to go to a strange, new place. They wanted to stay where they were, studying at the same school with their friends.
The school tried to find a way to help them. It offered the twins work cleaning the building, and a bus driver in the area provided them with a comfortable room to sleep in. They arrived at school early every morning and cleaned classrooms, restrooms, the cafeteria, and other facilities, all while preparing for the SAT. Despite their challenging lives, they always wore a smile and never appeared tired.
The girl was always top of her class with straight A's. Last December she applied to Harvard. In his recommendation letter, one of her teachers described in detail the challenges she had overcome in studying, and in day-to-day life. She was admitted on a full, on-campus scholarship and the school provided her a part-time job to earn money for living expenses. Her brother received a scholarship to Kentucky State University.
And now for another story, this one about a Korean man named Kim. His father had made a fortune as the owner of several saltpans in South Jeolla Province. Kim is now 63 and still a tall, good-looking man. When he was younger, he had dreams of being an actor in movies or on TV, so he studied drama at a university in Seoul. He has nearly ruined his life, though, due to continuous drinking.
Originally, he, like his father and two brothers, wasn't a drinker at all. That changed when he got to university, though, and fell into a heavy-drinking crowd.
Unfortunately a friend of his knew that he was born rich, and flattered him and lured him to drink almost daily. He became accustomed to it and can still down four bottles of soju in a sitting.
He was jailed when he was 26 years old for physically assaulting another man while intoxicated. That was the start of annual imprisonments for drunken violence.
His elder brother is a doctor and the younger one a successful businessman. Nowadays, when he goes to either of their houses, they refuse to open the door to him and even go so far as to call the police. They have already paid many fines for him.
When he was in his early thirties, Kim quit drinking for a three-year period, during which time he joined a small company and married a beautiful lady, who soon gave birth to a son. That happiness was short-lived, though. He started drinking again and his wife left him alone with their 2-year-old son.
He sent his son to an orphanage and now lives alone in a shabby studio apartment near Pagoda Park on Jongno Street in Seoul. Just last month, he got so drunk at a small beer hall that he destroyed the facilities there and was arrested. He awoke the next morning in his cell and muttered to himself, "Had I been born poor, I could have lived in another way: working hard to support a happy family."
These stories remind me of two old sayings: “You don't know the real meaning of happiness when you're in a happy situation" and “God helps those who help themselves."
The writer is a professor of the Department of Chinese Language Culture at Jeju International University. His email address is benseoh@naver.com.