Personal narrative: dropping out of high school in South Korea and the United States

¶ … Discovery

The opinions that people hold on an individual's behavior or their personality have great impact on the person. There are instances where one can underestimate or even overestimate how other people think of them and how the peers consider them or the social perspective they hold of him. I have been in a situation where I totally overestimated how much other people were thinking about me. This occurred during the first few days that I had joined college. I usually made sure that I was early for class and would sit at the front of the class. I would always answer all the questions that were asked even if I was not sure of the answer. I used to do all these so that I could attract attention and hence be noticed by the rest of the class. Looking back at those early days, I reckon it was a journey of self-discovery and self assertion within a strange and foreign culture in the fast and dynamic social culture that I immersed myself into having moved from South Korea in 2010 and settled here in the U.S. It was part of a longer journey that I had started after realizing I needed to continued with my education from the high school level that I dropped out of in South Korea and self assertion could only be possible with such conspicuous determined efforts in class.

I presumed that such outstanding characteristics of class participation, which ordinarily in my home country would earn someone a high podium among his peers, would bring my presence to the attention of almost all my classmates. However, this was not the case as one day I asked one of my classmates what they thought of me. Was shocked to realize that he had not noticed my presence in the class and was even not sure we were classmates. This was contrary to my expectations since I expected that everyone in class knew me and thought of me as brilliant student. My situation was quite similar to adolescent egocentrism as I believed that the rest of the class was attentive to my appearance since I always sat at the front. I also believed that they paid attention to my behavior since I was answering al the questions so that I could be noticed. With adolescent egocentrism there is belief that all eyes are on you as a person and this is exactly what I thought. This is just an example of the socially indifferent culture that hit me when I first landed foot in the U.S.A. Everyone seemed too busy making an extra everything, too busy to give attention and time to their social life.

The cultural difference between the U.S. And my home country therefore has been one of the significant drivers to change and choices in my life. Initially in a local school, I never felt very comfortable dwelling within a culture that was singular in nature and exclusive of other cultures. I needed to get an environment where I could fit into and cope well with my focus in academics. I took a decision to change schools from a local school to an international school. This decision was not reached at single-handedly but through vast consultation with the career advisors in my local school, talking with my parents and even getting the opinion of friends. I ultimately decided to change to an international school. This was on the background of diversity of cultures and varying views of life among the myriad immigrant students who would coalesce in the international schools as opposed to the local schools. This was life changing decision since it is through the school that I met many people from different countries and cultures that made me get the exposure that I would need for my career. It was quite emotional to leave my friends that I had known for a very long time to go to a totally different school. It would be hard for me to settle and get to make other friends and get used to them. This was the only logical move as studying in my country would not give me the exposure that I so much needed neither would the local school. Therefore there was an interaction between the logic behind my decision made it easy for me to deal with the situation in a less emotional way.

I would not have made the decision to make the move if I had given the matter less thought. I looked at the advantages of my decision against the disadvantages and the advantages outnumbered the disadvantages. If I could have given the matter less thought then I could not have weighed my options and could not have made the decision that I made.