Int Seminar : Fake
Bridge Project1
9/13/18
Ha Rim Kim

It is the refreshing autumn of 2016. With trembling mind, I clicked the button as fast as I can to buy the shoes I have been eyeing for a long time from an overseas purchasing agency site. Buying a limited edition among the enthusiasts required a lot of enthusiasm and a great attentiveness and concentration within the split second. This pair of shoes was a first gift to myself with the money I earned. After all, it became a valuable and meaningful object containing my identity of fashion and my first social life in my early 20s.

While attending a university in Korea, I worked at the same time, acknowledging I had to earn my own allowances. My first job was a private math tutoring teacher for high school students since I majored in mathematics education. There is an unconscious custom in Korea that the first salary you get should be the money to buy gifts for your parents. Therefore, my first salary was used to buy a wind-tight jacket for my mom and dad since they enjoyed walking and jogging. Then, with the money I earned after, I bought these pair of shoes that I have been longing for a long time. I did not even wear these shoes within the first few months I bought them because I didn’t want them to wear out. However, I brought them with me to New York to start my new days here together with my unboxed, new pair of shoes. I often wear it and think of my past busy days, bearing both school and work at the same time back in my hometown. It truly recalls my ambition to become a busy and hardworking student to succeed in future.

Now, as a freshman at Parsons the School of Design – my second experience of attending a university – I had to freshly adapt to a quite different environment, people, major and a state of mind. Two years in a university in Korea, I desperately thirsted for the opportunity to study at a bigger country and environment to further develop my potentials. This aspiration brought me here right now in New York. On the first day I arrived, I was surprised at how different it was from my expectations. I imagined looking at fashionable people walking around and magnificent skyscrapers all around to be a normal, everyday occurence. However, there were unbearable sights of wastewater flowing on the streest and too many homeless people lying next to trashcans, and the buildings standing old and antique. My pair of shoes beared with me through the struggles of from often stepping in the wastewater accidently to going through the hardships at Parsons in the process of adaptation. However, as my shoes possess the trait of scarcity, I would wish to develop myself to be special and competent person to achieve my dream in the same way.

When we climb a mountain, sometimes there are obstacles such as blocked pathways and you have to go back down and find new ways. Some might think that I am going downhill right now, but actually, I am just looking for a new way to climb to the top of the mountain. Hence, I firmly believe that if I try hard and my effort shines through with embraceable consequences, My feet will be standing at the summit unconsciously.