1. I used to believe I was a mutant.
My favorite movie in my younger elementary years was X-men. Though I was old enough to know people with magnetic powers or retractable metal claws didn't actually exist, there was always a part of me trying to look for some oddity in myself. Maybe there was a finger I could stretch back to reach the back of my hand or perhaps or an ability to see or hear things that others couldn't. After some painfully disappointing experiments, I found my ability: I could see colored spots within the darkness of my closed eyelids. It was with my mom that I shared this discovery along with my proud claims of being a legit mutant. Only after overhearing the ophthalmologist say with a decrease in the volume of his voice, "Hmm...maybe he needs to go see a psychologist?" did expert-certified doubt prompt me to search and find out that those colored spots were just afterimages of light.
2. Oranges
I'm known for having lots of penalty points which people like to point fun at. 3 points for not going to morning exercise is something that brutally punishes nocturnal workers like me. I'm really thankful and jealous of my former roommate who would grab one of the pillars of my bunk bed and shake it like crazy, threatening to bring down the whole bed to get me up in the morning. With a degree of success, I've used Alarm Mon, an alarm app that requires a completion of a series of games to turn off. This year I've added to my arsenal a dumbell alarm that you have to shake 30 times to deactivate and SonicBoom, which I hope will be as loud as its name suggests. Ultimately, though, I know waking up for morning exercise will be a question of the power of my will.
4. I'm the zombie of all my parents' health problems
At -6, I have poor eyesight which disables me from seeing anything in detail beyond 5cm from my face without the lens of my glasses which are several times compacted to make them thin and light enough to wear. I consider myself lucky as my mom with -11 has trouble finding glasses and wears lens instead. The ophthalmologist says that my cornea is distorted and that I should expect deteriorating eyesight in the future. I'm also flat footed, a trait I've inherited from my father. A long walk would drive needles into my feet, but I kept quiet as I thought that the pain was just normal fatigue. Only until my mom felt the soles of my feet with her hand at the shoe store when we went on one of those dreaded, long walk-guaranteed shopping trips did I find out. I also have fragile tonsils which catch every whiff of the cold passing through the seasons.
5. I come from a military family
Though in Korea military is mandatory, my father's side all spent extended years in the military as instructors and my grandfather devoted his life to the corps rising up their ranks to General. My grandfather wants to keep the marine tradition alive, but my father strongly disagrees. I'm not sure whether I'll choose the marines or just go somewhere else that's safer and much less painful. With 2 passports, I always have that grudgingly envied option of not going to the military as well, but I'm still going to go anyways.
6. Basketball
Despite the disadvantage of being small, I've always loved playing basketball. Though I loved Micheal Jordan and the taller and flashy players, smaller players like Isiah Thomas were the ones I would really root for.
7. Rap
Though rap is much more popularized than in the past, I still cringe at some of its connotations. It was actually my mom who got me into rap. She would always introduce me to new music on car rides and "Not Afraid" by Eminem was my first rap song. The rawness I felt when I listened to the song was what got me listening to more of Eminem and other artists as well. Whereas Not Afraid was a positive song of overcoming difficulties, I uncovered other songs by Eminem more negative and profane. I liked the sound of rhymes and beats, but at the same time, I knew some of the lyrics were outrageous and outright wrong. I listen to a wide range of rap songs from country incorporated rap (Yelawolf) to the more controversial songs. Lately, I'm hooked up on a song Jaeho introduced me to "I'm not Racist" by Joyner Lucas which is a song by a black rapper who writes from the perspective of a white supremacist and a black racist. It does get pretty corny at the end and given what they're saying its difficult to imagine the two of the characters even sitting down for a discussion, but I could still see what Lucas tried to do.
8. Stuck in between languages
Having lived in the US until 5th grade, I'm pretty comfortable using English-or so I hope to think-and the 6 years since I came to Korea have added to my fluency in Korean. But I feel rather stuck between the two languages with no language being particularly dominant or skilled.
9. My favorite picture book is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs which I enjoyed reading with "Walking in the Air" a song that accompanies it.
10. I'm a member of BAR, a music group Jaeho and I made for fun. We've got a USB mic, a midi keyboard, a launchpad, and a bass guitar in our room, along with blaring speakers exploding with bass.
11. Whenever I travel to a different country, I look for keychains with my name on it. So far San Fransisco is the only place where I've been successful in my search. My dad wanted my name to Brightson at first which would have stopped my search. I like my name and how it sounds. I've thought of using it as my rap name, but there was already another major rapper using his name, Bryson Tiller.
12. Bad handwriting
My dad would always memo things in his pocket-sized Mead notebook and this is a habit that I've adopted though now I type my memos into my Daily Excell planner. He had extremely fine handwriting that was small enough to pack in detailed information onto one page. My distorted handwriting is the result of my failed emulation of his handwriting.
13. I was born in College Station, Texas where I lived until 5th grade when I came to Korea. I had a hard time especially due to my Korean and it was only by middle school that I managed to get myself together. When I was bombarded by trouble in and out of school, I thought I was in the toughest moment of my life which in retrospect wasn't really all that bad. Nevertheless, the effort I put during those times and the result-coming to KMLA-I got was something that gave me hope.
14. Allergic to heat
I fall asleep if the temperature of the classroom is hot, so most of the time I take my hanbok off during class.
15. Car music
It's in the car with power lines slithering beside me outside the window where I learn new music from my mom and share my own musical tastes with her as well. This is both exciting and scary at the same time because I worry about how she'll view me through my playlist.
16. losing things
When I become focused on one thing I start to forget about others. This trait has cost me much in lost items and has caused me to think twice before buying anything the size of my hand.
17. Malcolm X
Though I don't know much about the black civil rights movements, I've encountered famous black thinkers like W.E.B Du Bois while writing a paper on the banana republics. Listening to rap, a genre that is predominantly black, has led me to an interest in black culture and history if not slang terms. Malcolm X is the one I like between him and Martin Luther King Jr. I've read his autobiography and his strong personality as well as the fact that he underwent a change from having a skewed view of black rights to a more inclusive view was something that interested me. I plan to read more to understand more.
18. VINXEN is my new favorite korean rapper. Unlike other rappers who use flashy rhyming schemes to cover up their lack of content in their lyrics (they just talk about how great they are and are arbitrarily angry), VINXEN reveals himself in painfully honest songs which talk about his life.
19. Lose yourself
Lose Yourself by Eminem is the song I listen to before I have to do something important. Though this song pumps my heart even faster, which kind of goes against the purpose of going through the rituals people go through before crucial moments, I find myself returning to it. Eminem's technical capabilites in rhyming are amazing.
I'm really into the technical aspects of rap and enjoy watching deconstructions of the rhyming schemes of rap songs. (Here's a deconstruction of Lose Yourself)
20. Whenever I'm bored in class, I experiment on how to write my name in different ways. One of my recent discoveries is that I can write my name in numbers.
13 12 4 5 0 7
B R Y S O N
(looks better when I write it in pencil especially with the "r" and "y" but anyways)
21. I am a cyborg.
Nothing keeps me up better than some music, so whenever I feel tired you can often find me with one ear plugged with a worn out earphone and the other open.
22. FIFA
I play this soccer video game against my brother every weekend which doesn't often end well especially when we're betting. I'm the strategy player who passes until I get the perfect opportunity while my brother is the hit-and-run lucky shot guy who always somehow manages to get a header or a long-range shot. Though I claim to be the smarter player, the fact that I wait for the "perfect" opportunity is what often brings me to a loss against my daring brother.
23. Exercise
I've always tried to squeeze in some exercise, but my efforts are never sustained for more than a couple days. I set an excessive routine for myself and burn through it with satisfaction until I find out that I'm putting myself through too much and stop altogether. The pull-up bar I've stuck through the doorway of my dorm room now only serves as a reminder of my small height.
24. I snore and sneeze loudly.
Sleeping next to my grandfather on my weekly visits to his house was something I didn't quite enjoy. We would talk about life and afterwards, my grandfather would say "goodnight" though I was kept awake by his gales of snoring. My grandfather was old, but he still had remnants of his yelling military past and you could hear it in his sneezing which was like a lightning strike. My dad has the same trait and so do I. I hope that this sneezing and snoring has no relation to dysfunctional lungs or any health issues. Tolerance of snoring is the first question I ask to friends who I want to be roommates with.
25. I read pretty quickly. Most books I'll skim through in a couple days.
26. I have a nerdy face. I don't like the word "nerdy" but that's the only word I can think of now that'll fit. Mom always tells me that although my current face is more of a result of genes my future face will reflect my life which is an idea that troubles me.
27. My favorite drink is Shik-Hae (식혜) which my great-grandmother used to make me when I was young. I love it whenever I find Shik-Hae in the cafeteria. But, I find that as with most foods that become brought out of the home and commercially so, Shik-Hae has gotten much too sweet to fit my exact taste.
28. One thing that makes me sad about being older is that now they no longer give you free vitamin candy at the pharmacists which they always do for the kids.
29. I like to wear light and comfortable clothing which is why watches and necklaces or anything with fur is not compatible with me.
30. My favorite color is blue.
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