CREATIVITY

Creativity has always been one of my biggest identities. It has always given me a therapeutic effect. Sometimes, when I struggle with tedious school assignments or sports workouts, creativity has provided me an outlet to recover and return to grind. Most importantly, creating something that never existed in the world, radiating that it is my creation, part of my identity, closely connects the world and me. When creativity becomes a part of every activity that I do, whether it is baking, researching, or making art pieces, creativity makes me special and existing.

At home, I enjoy baking and cooking. First, I decide what to make. I prefer making something complex because when the result comes out well, the pleasure gets bigger than when I make something easy. Second, I read the recipe and baked it. If I fail, I try it over and over until I succeed. Third, I repeat making it, sometimes on a larger scale. Fourth—this is where the creativity kicks in—I modify a recipe and make it in my own version. Fifth, I share my bread with my family, and our family shares the joy of eating what I make. I love to make brownies, castella, and lemon pound cake.

At school, I found a new creative talent: singing. Out of curiosity, in sophomore year, I joined a choir. As a religious school, we sang more than one time a week in front of the whole school, and we prepared tons for that one song. And we also sang at every large school event, national cathedral, etc. However, I loved the intensity and the harmony of different notes with all the different voices. As a base, the most important voice part, we provide a sound that other voice parts can build upon. Though each voice part sounds different, when they come together, something whole new and beautiful can be heard. Next year, I auditioned and got into the honors chamber choir. The songs we did there were more artistic and advanced. With confidence, I auditioned for the Beast in the musical Beauty and the Beast and got a call-back but eventually ended up in the ensemble. However, I enjoyed how we made a wonderful show out of a scrap with each individual’s unique ideas and talents.

As a creative project, I launched the Dark Tourism website to shed light on the sites that have dark histories of numerous deaths, including Seodaemun Prison, Korea, and Son My, Vietnam. I visited the places that I could and presented this website to numerous Korean college students. Tieing seemingly unrelated places with similar tragic historical backgrounds and creating a new perspective was very meaningful.

Continuing my passion for history from the Dark Tourism Project, I have participated in the National History Day competition with my friends. We created a documentary: John McCain: The Maverick in Debate. The theme being Senator John McCain’s life story and his ability to integrate politics, we integrated the history of our school, where the Senator graduated, and several historical events, including the Vietnamese War, into the documentary. We got to interview Mr. Ravenel, the son of the Senator’s mentor, and delve into our school's history and the Senator's life. Creating a whole new narrative of a person from various perspectives was the most meaningful part of this project. As a result, we won first place in the district and the Naval Order of the United States Award in Naval History.