Writing challenge: Write an admiring letter to someone asking for something

Dear Carol

 This is Therese. Therese from Deep Cove, that little town with Cherry blossoms and apple trees if you remember. That town where nothing happens, and nothing really changes. I hear you were faring quite well in the city, almost too well- your maman was worried that you might never come back. I know that you might not remember me. After all, I'm Therese, that little girl with red-brown hair from that rickety old mansion up the mountains. But if I were to tell you one thing about me, something to renew the colors in your memory, we had fond memories here and there. You helped me find maman's wedding ring that summer night, remember? You sneaked me, Jack and Casey out to the city once, to watch that motion picture in town. I still remember the dazzling city lights, cars whooshing by, and girls and boys in absolutely stunning dresses and suits walking hand in had. And that sound of trumpets rising to a crescendo, and the beats of the drums marching with elegance and gravity as the lights went down- these things I will never forget. I swear with all my heart, that I have never forgotten that day. I dare did not. That day seemed to have taken complete hold of me with all its sheer brilliance and beauty. Even now, as I'm writing this to you on my way to the city I can see the glittering lights.

I'm on the train to get to the city. I couldn't help myself. I just had to write this letter to you. Out of the window, I see these beautiful butterflies we used to catch up the hills. I smell the breezes that we used to smell lying in the grasses, eating cherries. I can see the memories and the promises we swore to keep. This December, do you remember?

 I'm wondering if you remember that promise and if you'd like to have a day with me like old times. My life doesn' have any sparkles you breathed into my life. I can't inhale it anymore, no more than the lingering that you left inside me. I question every day: why is my life no longer sweet and cheerless without you? Perhaps the town life is too static and unchanging for me. Perhaps I'm too old to wait for inspiration and dreams. Perhaps, I miss you too much than I can bear.

 I thought you were gone that day when you left to the city. You always told me your dream is to live out your fantasy in the city. Bright lights, big city. You would become prettier; you would get rid of that static boredom stuck in you like a sword from your chest. I cried for weeks when you were gone. Just gone, as soon as the train took off. When words and gossips came to town that you were alive and indeed doing very well out there, I couldn't help it. I'm on the train now, going to you. Please do excuse this long letter. I didn't have the courage to outright ask you, and I've never had a way with words as you do. This is my favor to you. If you do remember me and our beautiful days together, please wait for me with a bouquet full of white roses.

Love, Therese Belivet

 Mashed potatoes that could pass for soup, pork cut into cubes that were often stale and hard, and sagged broccolis dipped in a mysterious sauce. These menus are from my middle school years. When the food was good, which usually is never the case, we'd have a half of a banana or a yellowed apple for dessert. If we were really lucky then we'd get a yogurt-the sort mass produced in factories. 

 Now, Chinese sweet chili shrimp, strawberries in heaps, apples, cream puffs, ice chocolate donuts filled with whipping cream, smoked duck with sugared radish, rice cake rolled in bacon, chicken soup with white rice, are regular menus of my meal. These were just today's menus and the list isn't complete yet; I just wrote down what I could remember. Oh, and did I also mention that there's always at least one type of salad with one or two dressings and fruit. Also, these menus are all plated in buckets as buffets. Students can make requests to the kitchen for menus they'd like to have, from gorgonzola pizza with honey to macaron. Of course, one of the frequent complaints from the students is that there just isn't enough meat on the menu. Which is ironic, considering how KMLA's nutrient table tends to favor meat quite a lot: students who go to KMLA eats three times more amount of meat than regular high school students, one of KMLS's dietitians once famously answered. 

 Even after school's over, the dining hall is always facilitated food to satisfy the students. Three types of cereals from fruit loops to regular corn cereals, sliced bread, both white and wheat, jams of all sorts, from Nutella to apple, and the famous KMLA HonJeongg breads are always there whether it be a weekend night or a busy Wednesday night. The freshly baked Honjeongg bread, changes every day from apple pie with crusts and chocolate macaroon.

To most KMLA students, the extravagant and highly nutritious menu is not strange at all. However, to the students who go to public schools, this meal is one of the factors that makes KMLA different and more attractive than other schools. For years, a famous internet post calling KMLA a "school for nobilities", showing the "class"(which, in the Korean web, became a slang that often means how one thing stands out from another) of KMLA has been going around. The post features various shots of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and even Italian cusine neatly plated in plastic dishes. The comments on these post, ranges from a man in his thirties making fun of the "nobilities" to a high school student who compares the meal in the picture to "my school's crap". 

 The KMLA students' response? "That's not our school's meal! That's YongIn Foreign Language High School's!" A fellow 11th grader who will remain anonymous as K, cried out in outrage. According to K, KMLA may have been famous for heavy and extravagant meals in the beginning. However, after KMLA lost financial support from Pasteur Milk, KMLA's meals are modest compared to YongIn. Moreover, it's unfair why KMLA is the main target of the press and the internet users when the majority of private/foreign language schools' meals are like KMLA's these days. 

 This moment, is when we go back to Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist HIstory's episode: Food Fight. Two colleges with almost the same prestige, Vassar and Boudin exist. However, one school's meal consists of soggy pizzas and soups with questionable ingredients. The other school has a full course buffet with all sorts of exquisite cuisine from all around the world. The reason behind this difference comes from the school's decision to spend more or less money on financial aids to students. Vassar lacks that "wow" quality in their food because they've decided recruiting and aiding students who have the potential but lack the opportunity to achieve success due to financial limits is more important than good meals; Boudin, on the other hand, chose not to. 

 Gladwell calls out schools like Boudin, who does not invest more on financially aiding these students, students like Carlos who has the potential and the capability to achieve academic success. When the systematic error and unjust in society is evident, Boudin's decision cannot be seen just as an attempt to provide the students with a better meal. Rather, their decision can also bee seen as an act that neglects the systematic injustice the talented but poor students must face every day. Their decision holds a burden that needs to be weighed and criticized, because, as educators, they are giving up a chance to provide proper education to a student that desperately needs it. 

 Now, back to Korea. High schools in Korea can be divided into two: the private/foreign language/international schools, and schools that are not; public high schools. There's no way denying that those who attend these prestigious schools tend to be from families that are wealthier than the majority of the students who attend public high schools. Also, there's no denying that the tuition for these schools are extremely high-higher than medical schools in Korea. However, even if we try to look past these flaws, what truly is problematic is how these affluent schools do not give out financial aids. 

 KMLA for one thing, used to choose one or two students a year and paid their tuition for a year. However, that doesn't exist now these days. Instead, they give out 100 dollars to students who manage to remain in the 7% range in their classes. Those 100 dollars, when compared to KMLA's tuition that exceeds 20 million, aren't much help to a poor but student who wishes to attend KMLA.

 I remember back from my middle school days, a friend of mine who resembled me in a lot ways. Grade-wise, she and I were always competing for the 1st place; she was interested in art just as I was, and sometimes I would be shocked at the materials she produced. Despite never getting the education in arts, she seemed to have that spark, that natural sense of colors and shapes. She played the piano quite well too, and she enjoyed both math and literature. To me, even to this day, she sounds like the perfect, desirable KMLA student, However, she goes to Jecheon girls' high school while I go to KMLA. She was just good as, or even better than I was. The defining factor that made our paths diverge, is the fact that my father is a doctor while her father is a preacher of a small town church: I had the financial support from my family, while she didn't. Even to this day, when I'm learning something new, and different from the Korean education curriculum such as arts and Physical Education that the majority of Korean students caught up in the pressure to exhaust themselves over the Korean SATs would only dream about learning, I think of her. I think of what she might have been able to achieve, explore, and learn. Sometimes, I even feel as if I've taken away her spot unfairly, that it's her who truly deserves to attend KMLA, with all her talent and academic vigor. 

 Maybe it's time we, as KMLA students, think about where our tuition goes. Maybe, we're taking away another students opportunity to be educated over our everyday meal. Maybe it's time that we lessen the weight on our plates, and share our portion with someone else- with students like Carlos who have the talent, but simply lack the opportunity. 

If Picasso was born in Korea, he would be frying chicken, an anonymous twitter user once tweeted. Not only was this the start of “what ifs’ related to Korea that satirized Koreans’ obsession with conformity, but it also pointed out Korea’s lack of support in education. Considering how Korea’s university enrollment is quite high compared to that of U.S.A, some might think Korea’s is better off than the U.S.A, education wise. After all, Korea's university graduation rate far exceeds the 39 percent rate that other OECD countries hold, as 82 percent. However, once the full overview of the Korean education system is taken into consideration, of how private academies such as Hak-wons are dominating Korean education and how the Korean government lacks financial support to gifted and poor students, Students like Carlos will be extremely rare to come across.  

 Malcolm Gladwell pointed out how in the U.S.A, gifted students like Carlos can only get an opportunity to pursue their academic interests with the assistance and connections of an adult figure. That’s when Eric, who goes around schools in the U.S.A in search for gifted students in need of financial aid and helps them attend schools with high-quality education, comes into the picture. However, because these students know how important it is for them to hold on to this single opportunity to be chosen and supported by Eric, they are often forced to hide their emotion and simply “forget” what obstacles they face. These students, as they can’t afford to miss this opportunity that will boost them up the social ladder, work extra harder with desperation. This situation the students are forced into is what Gladwell points out: if a gifted but poor student has to work extra harder and requires extra assistance to make it to university compared to a student from a wealthy family, there is something definitely wrong with the system.

 Now, what about Korea? Based on my education throughout kindergarten to middle school, financial support seems to be the defining factor that decides which school you go to, even more than talent. Gladwell provided how many students studied by themselves and obtained amazing scores in ACT and the SATs, but in Korea, where everything is so Hak-won oriented, such endeavor would be impossible. Maybe with extra hard work, the students in the U.S.A may have been able to catch up and even exceed their relatively affluent peers. However, no matter how faster and harder the students in Korea try to chase after their peers, the chances are that they will lag behind; their peers are boosted up with private education: Hak-won.

 From the beginning of elementary school, students are basically bred from Hak-wons from the beginning of elementary school day and night. 82.8 percent of elementary and middle school students whose family income were over 700 dollars a month took up private education in 2015. However, the rate of students from families whose monthly income is around 100 dollars in private education, was less than half of the former group.  When the students get private education from basic math to even Physical Education, no matter how talented or smart students like Carlos are, there are certain limits such students can follow up to. Considering how the majority of the schools let students sleep during the day through class and let them study all night at Hawk-wons, the quality of public schools won’t be much help to support the gifted students without private education either. How can students like Carlos beat the Hak-won-made-students when the Hakwon-won bred students spend tens and thousands of dollars on Hak-wons? There isn’t much infrastructure or any academic FA systems that can ensure the students have access to hak-wons either. The rate of governmental support in public education in both elementary and middle school education is only around 3.4 percent; with high schools, the rate is much lower as 0.7 percent. What little financial assistance that comes to the gifted students usually comes in the form of textbooks and extra study materials, and sometimes with after-school classes. Compared to the giant enterprise that Hak-won is today, that not only assists but recreates a student from head-to-toe, these infrastructures are no avail to students like Carlos.

 For the gifted but poor students, this is how it all starts: they can’t start out on the same line to the marathon that is “수능”, the Korean SATs, nor can they boost themselves up to the same level as their peers. The chances of them getting an extra boost up to fill the gap are highly unlikely because there isn’t someone like Eric that could support them. The gifted students, already excluded from the beginning soon come face-to-face with reality: the financial burden.

The U.S.A may be trying to disguise what unfair system they may have as the land of opportunity and liberty. However, Korea is not even trying to hide it. However, in Korea, the idea that money not only decides where you come from but where you go is deep-rooted and blatant everywhere. By the time students graduate elementary school, they aspire to be government workers- a job that is stable and attainable. Even teens joke about the “spoon hierarchy” of how the financial stability of one’s family categorizes one into certain classes. Korea’s pessimistic and cynical atmosphere on achievements in education and the job market is not an unfamiliar one. It’s been around for a long time and it’s getting worse. Not only is such atmosphere detrimental to the gifted students who aspire to move up the social ladder, the sense of loss and failure soon takes hold them. This phenomenon makes the students assert their own position on the bottom of the hierarchy and simply give up.

 Throughout my life, I have seen how such atmosphere and social consensus that money decides where you go and who you become affect brilliant students. The pattern is almost identical. The gifted students lacking educational assistance stop studying and working. Most of them start to hang out in groups, becoming the teenage gangs, the ‘ill-jins” in Korea. It’s the same old story, but the pressure that forces the gifted students to give up so easily, is the ultimate cycle that the Korean education system hasn’t been able to break free of.

 The grade gap between students is not a result of their brains but a result of money. Students like Carlos enter Korea’s education system to be pushed back to the end of the line as the Hak-wons boost the other students to the finish line. With the lack of an effective financial assistance and Korean society’s blatant reinforcement of how money decides one’s life course, the students give up. In Korea, a student like Carlos would be impossible to thrive, for even without considering the assistance of someone powerful and influential, the student will be encouraged to give up and settle for what they have in the first place. 

A threshold is a concept used to describe how much influence peer/ general review can have on one’s thoughts and actions. Though not entirely identical, it goes hand in hand with concepts such as mob mentality and the pressure to conform. Thresholds are brought in to discuss why people do not let good ideas influence them, and make stupid decisions instead. Thresholds can serve to explain why, after starting to hanging out with the ‘rebel’ kids, a straight A student stops studying; why an honest, straightforward teen would suddenly drink and drive; why people would go on doing things that seem so unlike them. Why people, despite knowing what they're supposed to do and what is the right thing to do, just can't seem to do it.

 The idea itself has been explored rigorously in Revisionist History; those with high thresholds can keep their own ground among others while those with low thresholds are often influenced by what others may think about their behavior. What I would like to focus on, however, is the online phenomenon that is taking place among the Korean Net Feminists. They have developed a norm of celebrating women with high thresholds while criticizing women with low thresholds, viewing the latter to be trapped in a “corset”.

  The term "corset" has been used online to describe the state of a woman who have conformed to a male oriented society and its set of values and morals. It has been used to describe the "cool girl syndrome", of how women would alter themselves to satisfy men; the cool girls would like sports and games, not care about calories when eating and be laid back enough to hang out with the guys but also be "feminine" and attractive enough to be the object of their desire. From the Manic Pixie Dream Girl to the Cool Girl, Korean Net Feminists has been focused on banishing these ideas altogether while hacking into the underlying mechanism to how these concepts came to be popular. 

 Though every Feminists' agenda may differ, the general idea that the Korean Net Feminists shared could be summed up with certain keywords: rebellion and retaliation. Korean Net Feminism traces its root way back to when MERS first hit Korea. In DC inside gallery, an internet forum, opened up a MERS gallery, male users wrote how MERS was spreading in Korea because Korean women traveled abroad for prostitution. The female users, took over the MERS gallery and changed the name to the now famous "Megalia", a combination between MERS and the daughters of Egalia. Since then, through various internet websites and Twitter, feminism became the hotly debated topic in Korea. 

 Twitter, with its hashtags and incredible ability to spread information like wildfire, became the home of many Net Feminists. One of the hashtags that survived the ever changing internet world is "#이렇게 입으면 기분이 조크든요". It can be roughly translated into "it feels gooood to dress like this". I remember scrolling through my timeline and discovering tweets with this hashtag, often with an incredible number of retweets. Ever since this hashtag became a trend among Net Feminists, the idea of a woman who remains unaffected by Korean society's idea of feminity became much more widespread. The hashtag describes a commonly shared experience among women, of being told that certain attires aren't appropriate because they aren't "feminine" enough. The hashtag became a meme that advocated women's right over one's own body, from choosing what to wear to doing what one wishes to do. 

 One thing I noticed about the meme however, was how certain styles often went ignored. When a selfie of a woman dressed in frilly pastel clothes were tweeted, they garnered less attention compared to a selfie of a woman dressed in revealing clothes, usually dark colored. The tweets that often went viral often had women with high arched brows and red lips-a style that has been considered "too much" or "scary" in Korean society. These tweets would often discuss how they do not care what others, especially men, think about "strong" makeup style. Slang such as "개썅마이웨이" appeared alongside often, which can be roughly translated to "someone who carries on with their own way no matter what", or simply a "my-wayer". 

 Considering how Asian women are stereotyped and often taught to be submissive and docile, it is understandable why women with high thresholds who do not care what men think of their style, behavior, and language, are praised. Considering how twitter, with its low barrier between the Korean users and other international users, might be more open to stronger language and style backs up the Net Feminists' favor towards the "my-wayer". Moreover, many Net Feminists are trying to break free from the "corset", especially the idea that women can't be too obsessive over their jobs and must focus on smiling and being nice. Sharing experiences of how they were forced to make coffee at their workplace or be the "flower" of that office among men, may have fueled the desire to become a woman with a high threshold. As most of them are aware of the discriminations and threats they may face for being a feminist, to retaliate and successfully beat back such prejudice and discrimination may have contributed to the sudden rise of the concept too. 

 Megalia, before it became a website of such controversy, was mainly used to "mirror" misogynic posts on the internet. Now, with Megalia gone, many Net Feminists act as "internet warriors", brutally making fun of misogynists through fact checking and mirroring. As a reaction to Korean Society's pressure on women to be "nice", "submissive" and "docile", the current generation of Feminists seem to have chosen a new model for themselves. Beyonce, Rhianna, or just about any female celebrity with a certain degree of feminist agenda and PCness is accepted and praised into the realm of Net Feminists. The Net Feminists have chosen a model that directly contrasts with Korean society's idea of feminity: a woman with a high threshold, who get things done the way they wish to get it done, no matter what society says.