The Guide

<February 3rd, 2014>

I closed the wardrobe at last and looked around the dorm room. Home sweet home…at last. My last year at this school is set to begin.

As I always do when I am in my room, I turned on my laptop. What should I do? Watch a movie? Play a game? Make a video? Surf the Internet? I decided to log into Facebook. I entered the blue website and found that I had 2 messages I had missed. One was from my friend who was asking if I brought any food with me to the dorm. I promptly messaged to him “No” and went to the other one. This message caught my attention. It was from a freshman who would be joining KMLA this year.

“Hello? I am Minjung Ku, a freshman. I got to know you during last year’s debate competition. Anyway, I just came in to the dorm and wanted to thank you for all the help you have given to me. I especially wanted to thank you for that “guide” you sent me. It actually did help a lot and I really appreciated it. Hope to see you soon! Minjung Ku.”

Oh yeah…that guide.

Well, the only thing I could actually guide someone about would be how to come to KMLA. As a KMLA student, I succeeded in getting past around 300 other students across the country to successfully enter KMLA. I am a living example of how people could come into KMLA, a “self-proclaimed” expert, as it were.

There was this assignment by our homeroom teacher last semester to write a guide about any topic. At the time I was distracted because I was participating in a robotics contest, so I just wrote about the first thing that came to mind. I wrote about how to successfully get through the application process of our school.

I replied to Minjung,

“Thanks. It really was nothing. I thought that you needed a little help through it.”

“Again, thank you for your advice.”

“By the way, how did you get this guide?”

“Your blog! Nearly all the kids in the 19^th wave read it and some others too!”

“Really?!”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“…No.”

Uh oh…

So how could one come into KMLA? Top grades throughout middle school? A whole bunch of extracurricular activities, ranging from foreign volunteer work to Olympiad awards? As it turns out, you don’t need them. Of course, you need a certain level of scores in middle school, but what you truly need is a heart-moving story and some data that can prove your self-studying ability. Typical, isn’t it? You have to “be yourself” when you apply here. Fancy Olympiad titles in your resume may entice the teachers here, but our school prefers students with proper attitudes, independence, and morals. No one in KMLA wants a whining student who loves flaunting and flouting in the dorm. In short, you need to present yourself as a saint-like student who can overcome difficulties without a fit or help. You may not be that kind of a person…okay; you probably wouldn’t be that kind of a person, if you are a normal human. Stretch the truth, exaggerate, and try to convince the teachers here that you are indeed that strange mutant breed of applicants who can be those saints that the school wants. It may be unethical, but, hey, everyone’s doing it, and even the teachers know that.

I actually didn’t write it positively. I was distracted so I wrote what I really thought without thinking. Since it was a blog assignment, I had posted it online to a myriad of known and unknown people. Oh…I’m going to get in so much trouble...

<February 7^th, 2014>

After 3 days of conference, the disciplinary board decided to give me a 5-day special training period. The headmaster wanted me kicked out, but some of the younger and more insightful teachers decided that what I wrote wasn’t lies and that it could be a heads-up call for the school to try to reform its application process. I was relived and glad that there were some who understood my intentions over the tone of the writing. My tone was definitely out of line, but the content isn’t and I hope the headmaster or at least the faculty to accept this as an advice for change.