A lollipop moment. A moment that influenced my life greatly. Actually, I am an only-child who is dependent and easily influenced by friends. As a result, I have had hundreds of lollipops in my life, each having a different taste of sweetness. Some are cotton candy-sweet, with purely happy and delightful experiences. Others are caramel macchiato-sweet, with meaningful lessons coming from bitter experiences. Among them, there is one lollipop that gave me a taste of a whole new scope of sweetness, which I ate on my 7th grade.
I don’t like discussing much about my first year of middle school; I was a broken boy (not physically broken, I was a healthy 13 year old boy). In Korean expression, “a black dragon was leaping inside my heart.” In simple words, I was in my period of adolescence. Being cool was everything for the childish boy: ignoring teachers, hanging out improperly for a teenager, and flirting with girls (gosh, I was barely over ten!). Thinking back, it’s embarrassing, but I thought I was having the most exciting teenage at that time.
Then, I met these friends (they’re my besties now) who were totally different from me. They weren’t “bad kids” like me. They had the bright aura that made everybody, peers, teachers and parents like them. But more importantly, they were fun. They played as naïve as a 4 year old (they literally chased around the school), but their joy and happiness from their way of life were way times larger than my improper excitement. I envied them. I wanted to be like them. I got sick of my self-destroying life. I wandered around them and eventually the noticed me. They held out their hand for me. And I took it. The broken boy was staring to get fixed.
To them, it was just another day of running around. It was just another friend joining their enjoyment. But to me, it changed my life. They are the reason I am in KMLA and have a dream to follow. The years I spent with them are the most precious lollipops in my life.
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