By Kim Soo-jin
Summer has come back this year with the scorching sun hotter than ever, and it's not making life for students in Korea much easier. During their summer vacation, Korean students starting from elementary to high school, spend most of their waking hours in cram schools. Sitting in icy cold air-conditioned rooms, (which may feel like the one and only merit of being there for the students) half of the students stay in class in the hope of improving their grades next semester, while the other half sit and stare, not knowing where to begin.
Some students dare to ask a bold question, ``Why do we need a summer vacation anyway?'' Their thought behind this question is that summer vacation does not feel like a vacation to them at all. Rather, the amount of studying they have to bear only gets bigger during their so-called holidays. If this pattern continues, Korean students might eventually forget the true meaning of vacation. Vacations are there for students so they can take a break from their usual routine of school-cram-school-home and engage in diverse extracurricular activities. Or even better, students should spend this time to seriously think about their future, and make some plans, starting vaguely, and eventually building up to more concrete thoughts.
It does sound like I'm talking about a faraway land; As a Korean senior in high school, I am fully aware that students in Korea, especially if they are in high school preparing for college examinations, don't have time to be dreaming. They are, or we are, so caught up with improving our math problem solving skills, which most of us will make no use of in the future, or with getting a perfect TOEFL score. However, it is absolutely necessary for us to see the importance of having a dream. Students should study because they have a dream or many dreams to pursue.
As for me, I love talking about my dreams as well as asking other people what their dreams are. I love the diverse answers that I get back from people but many times, I get back the most depressing answer ever, ``I don't know.'' How can one not know? ``I don't know'' cannot possibly be one of the answer choices for the question, ``What is your dream?'' Perhaps, ``I do not want to know and I'm not curious,'' is a more honest answer. Then I'd like to tell those people that now is the time to become curious and do some serious thinking, adding that there can't be a better time to do so than summer vacation.
What are some specific ways of thinking about one's future? The first step one needs to take is to find out what he is interested in. He may write down a specific job, a general field of interest, or even a big list of jobs that seem fun and interesting. Then, it's time for some research. Provided with more than enough search engines and blog sites that flood cyber world, one can at least get started on research. If that's not enough, one can look through books that are written on the subject of interest or dream job, or books that are written by a person with your dream job and who is successful. Through these books, it is possible to find different facts, anecdotes, or even words of advice that might make the job sound even more attractive or less so. The final step is optional but highly recommended. It is to get a step ahead by engaging in internships or diverse programs that are provided during the summer vacation.
When can be a better time to do all this than summer vacation? And for the worried mothers who are afraid that their children will lose much of their studying hours, no worries please. Summer vacation is a very long time if one spends it wisely and he or she should be able to fit in a few hours or a few days in there to do what is as important as ― or even more important ― than studying. I'm not saying studying is not important. It is. Sadly for us students, it is one of the steps we must take in order to make our dreams come true
Kim Soo-jin is a senior studying at Gyeonggi Academy of Foreign Language.