Letter from the Editor “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same pattern.” - Edward de Bono The world has come a long way to bounce-back from the COVID19 pandemic. For 2-3 years, the whole world seemed to hold its breath as it waited for everything to return to “normal” once more. But, now, through the development of vaccines and medical systems, the world continues to rise rapidly from where it had left off. During a period like this, one could argue the importance of self-expression and development, which is achieved through creativity. As a senior in high school, the importance of creativity has become much more evident. Whether it was coming up with a topic for a lab report or writing a personal statement for college applications, I observed that innovative ideas are important. The theme of creativity and development was further evident to me when I read these journalist's articles. Ranging from short stories and album reviews to current issues and research, the articles written by the journalists showcase diverse forms of creative self-expression through their writing. It is my pleasure to present The Golden Dragon’s first issue of the 2023-2024 school year. The journalists of the newspaper have worked hard throughout November and December for this publication. We challenge you to find the hidden layer of creativity beneath the words and be inspired by our ability to grow and persevere.
Haneul Jang
Staff Secretary
Editor
Treasurer
Sue Kim
Haneul Jang
Minhee Choi
Correspondents Alex Chi Chloe Kim Hyonsan Kim Minhee Choi Samuel Chu Shinju Kim Sophie Sperl Sue Kim Toby Granger Yongsuk Kim
Cover Design Chloe Kim
What is CIPA? BY SUE KIM What is the worst physical pain you have ever experienced in your life? Is it the pain you experience in your throat when you were infected with COVID-19, or is it the pain from an injury you got in an accident before? When patients are going through diseases, the most common desire they have is for the pain to come to an end. This is also why Tylenol, a brand commonly used for painkiller drugs, was able to grow to the world’s best-selling medicine (Lippman). However, did you ever really imagine yourself having the disability to feel physical pain? A lot of people may simply think that it would be incredibly comfortable and wonderful to not feel any pain. Although this may sound unfamiliar for a lot of people, such imaginations have become the reality for some patients. Unfortunately, having this inability to feel pain is actually not as good as people imagine it to be. In fact, this symptom is categorized as a disease and syndrome named CIPA, the Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhidrosis. This article looks deeper into what CIPA exactly is, as a part of raising awareness for minorities who are struggling with rare disorders that are not as globally known or supported through charity and campaigns yet. CIPA is an acronym for Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis, which is also categorized as Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy Type IV in the biomedical term. This is an inherited genetic disorder/disease where patients have the inability to feel pain or difference in temperature, which comes with a general lack of senses or sweat as well (“Congenital insensitivity to”). One of the most common issues that CIPA patients experience is that they often cannot realize if they have been injured or are ill because they cannot feel the pain, nor do they feel the fever. This causes them to abandon the injuries they have gotten, which may lead to further infections or the development of more serious diseases ( ). One of the leaders of the official Korean Pain Society, MD Sung Joon Hong, stated that CIPA can be diagnosed through the genetic testing of the mutation of the Neuropathic Tyrosine Receptor Kinase 1 gene. He has explained that the abnormal mutation of this NTRK1 gene is what disables the brain from producing nerve cells regularly, leading to the inability of feeling pain or temperature.
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One of the most essential points for CIPA patients is to keep a moderate temperature for their body at all times. In fact, researches show that 20% of CIPA patients are not able to survive over 3 years after their birth. This is due to their inability to maintain stable body temperature because of their lack or absence of sweat, which may further lead to hyperthermia ( ). Even for CIPA patients who have survived over 3 years, it is commonly known that the majority of these patients have an extremely short lifespan of 25 years. Hence, regular check-ups for general injuries in one’s body is a very important part of CIPA patients’ lives (Daneshjou et al.). Due to the need for various and regular medical support for CIPA patients, the hospital bills are often an excessive burden for these patients to handle. However, due to the lack of awareness of this rare disorder, donations or advocacy for CIPA patients are in shortage and are increasing the hardships faced by these patients. It is true that the society has been putting in more effort to raise awareness for CIPA patients during the past years. For instance, in 2019, a famous South Korean medical TV show from SBS titled “Dr. John” was a story about a main character who is a medical doctor that had been hiding the fact that he is a CIPA patient ( ). Through this TV show, CIPA was able to become more known among the general public in South Korea, including myself as well who heard about this disease for the first time through this show.
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The reality is that unfortunately the majority of our society is still not aware enough about CIPA patients and the challenges they face in life. It is our responsibility and ethical duty as a member of this society, to reach out for CIPA patients and everyone struggling with rare diseases. Thankfully, there are lots of sources and charities in our surroundings, which are easily approachable for us. After reading this article, if you have become more interested in advocating for CIPA patients, never hesitate to reach out to those in need! The small actions we take could change the world!
Work Cited "Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis." NORD, National Organization for Rare Disorders,rarediseases.org/gard-rare-disease/congenital-insensitivity-to-pain-withanhidrosis/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023. Daneshjou, Khadije, et al. "Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhydrosis (CIPA) Syndrome; A Report of 4 Cases." NIH, National Library of Medicine, 22 Sept. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3564101/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023. Lippman, Thomas W. "How Tylenol Grew From a Little-Known Drug To the World's Largest-Selling Health Product." The Washington Post, 2 Oct. 1982, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/10/02/how-tylenol-grew-from-a-littleknown-drug-to-the-worlds-largest-selling-health-product/5fdfa0f5-445a-4243-91a739aa014658c6/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023. Various Examples of Pain in our Body. Yelp, www.yelp.com/search?cflt=painmanagement&find_loc=Jefferson+City%2C+MO. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023. . "' ' ' '… ." Medical World News, DadaMedia, 4 Aug. 2019, medicalworldnews.co.kr/m/view.php?idx=1510931911. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.
김영신 의사 요한 지성의 비밀 무통각증 대한통증학회 홍성준 특별위원장이 설명하는 무통각증
Impact of Climate Change on Our Life BY MINHEE CHOI Most of the people living in a country with four seasons would have likely heard something about climate change, especially people saying things like “Spring and Autumn are disappearing or becoming shorter,” or that we are in danger of only having two seasons: Summer and Winter. Climate change is one of the most ongoing topics that governments, organizations, and individuals have been striving to solve or at least minimize the negative impact. First of all, what is climate change and how is it caused? According to the United Nations, “climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns that are mostly caused by human activities”. We are increasing the rate of climate change taking place each day by burning oil, coal, and gas. Even just by driving or using transportation such as cars, buses, and scooters, and buying plastic products, we are participating in causing global warming and climate change. Every time we drive a car, take a bus, or use a scooter, we contribute to the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, trapping heat and raising temperatures. The consequences are far-reaching, with the melting icebergs leading to the extinction of numerous wildlife species, and rising sea levels posing a substantial threat to coastal communities. These mainly cause the temperature of the Earth to rise. With the icebergs melting, it causes water level to ruse, leading a lot of wild animals to become extinct, being a big threat to those communities and people living near the coastal areas. In addition to this, with more release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the ocean water is becoming more acidified due to them absorbing higher levels of carbon dioxide that is very harmful to marine systems. Because of this, it would also be harmful to humans as we consume marine life and animals. While there have been several different improvements and projects, such as electric vehicles and reusable energy projects, addressing the importance of finding ways to reduce climate change's impact on Earth, it is still becoming more severe each year, each month. Little by little, while it began really slowly in the old days, with our world increasing in population over time, it is something to be considered very important for our future generations as it is continuously speeding up with its effect on Earth. As the effects of climate change become more evident in our daily lives, there's an urgent need to take action and address this global crisis. It is no longer a problem that can be ignored or pushed aside for future generations to solve. Climate change is happening now, and its impact on our lives is becoming increasingly clear.
So what can we do to help? In order for us to secure a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations, we need to take action now, participating in decreasing the use of plastic products, especially plastic bags. By making conscientious choices, supporting clean energy, and participating in making the best decisions to keep the health of our planet Earth from getting worse, we can address the impacts of climate change and ensure a healthier, more resilient world for all. It is something we need to do as humans who have contaminated the planet and have taken action to kill our planet which would lead future generations to suffer greatly.
4 Reasons Why the UK’s NHS is Failing BY SOPHIE SPERL
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/guidenhs-international-students-uk
Health is valued as one of the most important tenets to a functional society, and because of that public health can be considered the backbone to many modern and developed states. However, something that not many people might know about is that the UK is currently in crisis due to its failing healthcare system. But why has it been failing recently? Let’s take a closer look at the NHS, the UK’s public healthcare system. The NHS stands for the National Health Service, and is generally used to refer to the combined healthcare systems of England, Scotland and Wales. It was established in 1948. The NHS is a publicly funded system, with most of its budget coming from taxes. It’s also considered one of the most impressive healthcare systems in the world, providing free healthcare to millions of people across the UK. However, the NHS has been struggling lately to keep up with the demands of the ageing UK population, and these demands were greatly amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. From issues such as understaffing, departure of employees (also known as attrition), lack of funding, and massive waiting lists, the NHS is actually struggling with its worst crisis in 75 years. To better understand the NHS’s issues, we have to look at each individual problem and its effects.
The first main problem is understaffing. While speaking to the chief officer of the West London NHS Trust, he told me that there are approximately 100,000 unfulfilled posts within the NHS. This comprises about 10% of important jobs that are not currently being carried out by individuals – but the remaining 90% of employees still have to cover 100% of work. This leads into the next major problem facing the NHS: workplace attrition. Attrition can be defined as employees departing from the workplace, which can be for any reason (being fired, quitting, retiring, etc.). Of course, these sorts of departures are typical for all fields. But the issue lies in the NHS lacking employee retention; in other words, they cannot keep their workers. There are many reasons for this, some of which include: stagnating pay, burnout, and workplace bullying, along with dissatisfaction with the workplace culture. Another issue is lack of funding. According to an ex-GP* I spoke to, practically every group within the NHS has gone on strike at some point, to ask for more money. The pay structure of the NHS makes it so that someone working in the primary care sector is paid based on how many patients they treat, which incentivises doctors to seek out people to treat even if their “illnesses” could be treated by over-the-counter medication. The government has also not been increasing workers’ pay to adjust to inflation, which has resulted in salaries stagnating over the years. Finally, let’s look at the massive waiting lists. The waiting lists for all types of appointments are extremely long, in part due to GPs being incentivised to seek out a minimum number of patients to treat, instead of focusing on treating patients with specific illnesses. The extremely long waiting lists have risen to a record high of over 7 million, which is a clear sign of a healthcare system that has major flaws. But the situation isn’t hopeless – all problems have solutions. Some ideas proposed by the doctors I interviewed included fixing the problems closest to the source: many universities have a limit to the number of students in medical fields that they will accept, which discourages people who may have a passion for becoming doctors from entering the field. If there wasn’t a limit, the staffing issue of the NHS could start to be fixed. People should also be empowered with knowledge on how to lead healthier lives, reducing the NHS’s workload. Furthermore, they suggested that the Chief Executive of the NHS should not be affiliated with the government, as the NHS should not be part of any political agenda. In conclusion, both doctors I spoke to said that the people of the UK must be braced for change, whether that means paying more taxes or having the NHS transition into a more expensive system (no longer free). The next five years will be critical for the NHS. We will see what kinds of drastic changes will occur to tackle the issues that can no longer be ignored. However, one thing is certain: the continuation of NHS is extremely important to British society and because of that the NHS must be preserved.
Mechanics Monthly: Hydraulic Systems and Flyby-Wire Systems: Basics (Part 1) BY YONGSUK KIM Airplanes, and machines in general, have moving parts. That’s a fact that everyone knows. But how do these moving parts, well, move? Is there an intricate system of pulleys, cogs, and rope between every moving part in an airplane? Does the pilot fly the pane by manipulating a jumbled mess of yarns? Well, obviously no. Rather, there are two main types of systems which connect the pilot’s interface and the various moving systems and parts: hydraulic systems and fly-by-wire systems. But before we dive into the introduction and comparison of the two systems, let’s first take a look at what kind of moving parts an airplane has. Airplanes typically have rectangular (or triangular) sections at the back of the wing, vertical stabilizer (smaller wing), and horizontal stabilizer (vertically placed wing at the back) which the plane moves up and down/left and right in order to move and maneuver. The main wing has flaps and ailerons symmetrically on each wing. The flaps are deployed downwards in order to increase the forward-facing surface area of the aircraft to increase air resistance – and therefore drag – during a landing. It can also increase lift during takeoff by setting it at a certain angle. The ailerons of an aircraft allow it to roll. It accomplishes this by reducing lift on one side of the wing by moving up the aileron on the side it wants to go, while moving down the aileron on the remaining wing, so that the desired direction
descends due to the discrepancy in lift. The vertical stabilizer’s rudder uses the force exerted by flying through air particles to change the aircraft’s horizontal orientation, usually towards the direction wind is hitting the aircraft from. The horizontal stabilizer’s elevator uses the same method to control the aircraft’s vertical orientation. All of these important moving parts are controlled by the pilot in the cockpit, nowhere near any of theses components, using a handle, joystick/control yoke, and pedals. These control surfaces have to be connected to the moving parts, which is where hydraulics and fly-by-wire systems come into play.
A Review of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot (2004)’ BY SHINJU KIM Green Day, a band composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool originally broke into the mainstream with their widely successful major-label debut Dookie in 1994, which is now one of the bestselling pop-punk albums of all time. It saw the band explode out of the underground scene to both controversy and widespread acclaim, winning the grammy award for best alternative album in 1995.
In the later 90s, while they still were able to release popular albums such as Insomniac and Nimrod, it was clear that the hype behind the band was beginning to diminish somewhat, with progressively lower album sales being reported each release. By 2003, with the material for an album in the works having been stolen from the studio, the band decided to restart from scratch, changing things up by building up a concept album: an album in which each song tells part of an overarching story. American Idiot was released in September of 2004, depicting a broken, dysfunctional American society under president George W. Bush, while following the arc of a young middle-class teenage protagonist given the name “Jesus of Suburbia”. In part, the exigence of the album’s key messages was what found deep resonance in a new audience of politically frustrated younger fans, leading to the band’s return to mainstream stardom. There is no doubt of the album’s impact in 2000s American culture, influencing wide sectors of modern American rock and even leading to a musical that incorporated the songs to portray the album’s story on stage. However, despite this, the album is not entirely without its shortcomings, and while it is certainly daring and ambitious, much of the album’s aspects have not aged as gracefully to today as many other American rock classics. That is not to say that the album does not start with explosively, where the opening title track greets the audience with loud guitar riffs and great drumming that gives the song a very energetic, rebellious tone, that fits the lyrics that, while simple, fittingly set the stage for the
album’s concept by describing the ‘age of paranoia’ that depicts modern American society. It transitions fairly seamlessly into the second song, ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, a 9 minute, multipart rock opera that introduces the album’s protagonist, a troubled, middle-class American teen who feels outcast and out of sync with the environment that surrounds him. The song develops through multiple passages broken up by instrumental solos with different tempos and melodies that show the progression of mindset that Jesus of Suburbia undergoes while trapped in a town he doesn’t feel at place with due to, as he sees it, the hypocrites, lies and propaganda that fuel a common mindset. The band is able to very effectively channel the angsty, punk aesthetic that they are known for to characterize the protagonist and his journey, not just in this track but the rest of the album too. By the end of this song, the protagonist sets off on a journey, running away alone to hopefully find a new, fulfilling life where he can be free. Yet personally, the storyline itself is where the album begins to fray, as I don’t find the characters and subplots to be particularly compelling. In the big city, our hero goes through many tribulations: drug abuse, feeling lost, feeling rejected, becoming overindulged in shallow desires, but I think the ambitious scope of this album’s character portrait leads to these themes and topics not being properly fleshed out, or made captivating. There’s a romance subplot that stretches across a handful of songs on the album, but it never feels particularly developed or made interesting. For the listener, it’s difficult to understand the emotional pain of Jesus of Suburbia following his breakup with another teen rebel, “Whatsername”, because the album’s portrayal of their relationship is too superficial. As a result, the album can at times feel very melodramatic, with huge mood changes, large character shifts and drastic reactions to things that could be significant, but don’t necessarily feel that way. Green Day’s American Idiot is an ambitious project, which ends up being both its strength and achilles’ heel. The premise it sets up is interesting, the musicianship is solid, and it approaches the story with energy and character. However, many of the songs fail to fully deliver on this promise with plenty of weak plotlines and writing that often makes the most pivotal moments of the album feel dull and melodramatic. Despite its presentation, this album thrives outside of its concept, with songs that function better as iconic pop-punk jams as opposed to hallmarks of musical storytelling. Overall, I would rate this album a 6.5/10, a decent set of songs, but definitely nowhere near being a personal favorite. Source(s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idiot
Short Story: Lost BY TOBY GRANGER “I was in a cabin in the woods.” “Where were you?” “I was in my basement.” “What for?” “I was looking for a family picture.” I lied. There was a pause and we both stared into the orange-red flames of the fire we’d made. It was getting late and we had seen clouds coming in before making camp. It was getting colder now, we knew it had been more than a few months when we came here. But it had only been a few weeks when we stumbled into each other. There was no doubt we were lost, but we were lost together. At least we wouldn’t go crazy. My mind wandered back to when we met. I was walking through the woods, following a stream down the mountain, my Dad had always told me to follow rivers downstream. “That’s where people are.” He had told me. He was right, there was a person there eventually. I had heard something move and I whirled around, gun raised and aimed. I was greeted by the usual sight of the tall pines and the damp dark forest floor. Must’ve been a pinecone falling from the trees. I kept walking and there it was again, a rustling of leaves in some bushes this time. It was an animal, at least something big and living. I raised my hunting rifle once more and aimed it at the bushes. I tightened my grip on the gun and shuffled slightly closer to the bush. Just as I was about to pull the trigger a man leapt up from the bushes, arms in the air with a panicked look on his face. “Don’t shoot!” I screamed out of terror and surprise. “Please don’t shoot!” he repeated. “Whoa! What- I-“ I couldn’t get words out. “It’s been months I think I-“ I was wrong it had only been a few weeks I would later learn. I calmed down a bit and caught my breath. He got up from the bushes and extended his hand. I shook it, both of us had callused hands and a firm grip. It was clear he’d been out here as long as I had. “You got a name?” I asked. “Greg. You?” “Hudson.”
We both were heading downstream so we decided to stick together. We did nothing but talk, we had both been deprived of social interaction and enjoyed the company of another person. We talked about our families; we missed them dearly. Going into the mountains was safe at first but we’d both got lost very quickly. As my gaze broke from the flames, Greg picked the conversation back up. “Where are we headed tomorrow?” He asked. “I don't even know where we are now.” He nodded. “This stream could end in a settlement, we don’t know, right? I think we should keep following it.” Greg said with a glimmer of hope. “We don’t know if that town is still there. The bombs dropped on the city and even Mayport got flattened and irradiated.” I said pessimistically. Mayport. How I missed Mayport. It turns out Greg was also from Mayport. It was a sleepy little town. A very picturesque North American small town. All four seasons, little shops in brick buildings, one big department store, and a pond for ice skating in the winter. How I missed the simplicity of life back then. How I ached to be back before it all went wrong. Mayport was in Maine. Maine! Why would they even target Maine?! That was a question I had been pondering since the day the bombs dropped, a question that remained painfully unanswered. What the hell do they even need to be bombing Maine for anyways!? I realized I had brought the mood down. “Sorry.” I mumbled. “It’s alright… these are hard times.” Greg said empathetically. Greg was a good man, much more well-tempered than I. He had a patience that I admired. A week before, he had set a fish trap in the stream- I say set -rather he improvised a fish trap until he made a functioning one. He had an innovative spirit, a drive to keep going, I don’t know where he got it from. Then again, I don’t know why I had chosen to keep staying alive. I have a gun and plenty of bulleNo. I pushed the thought from my head. “Well we are lost. I mean, we’re really lost, we don’t even know the way back to Mayport or the way to where we’re going. The only sense of direction we’ve got is the Sun and that damn stream!” I pointed out. “Yup. But that’s how it’ll be for a while. Let’s just keep moving. If we find the coast, or if we find civilization, whatever we find it’s moving forward.” “But we’re shooting in the dark…” I protested. “Hudson, we have nowhere else to aim.” I laid back into a pine tree and watched the sunset. I had come to the conclusion that nostalgia is a fickle thing. A want to be in the past, a want for the regular, the normal, the used-to-be, the good times, but you can’t get them back. As I sit beneath pine trees in a mountain range, a place I used to love to be. I want nothing more but to leave. I look
at the pine trees, I look at the sunlight of the last hours of the day shining through creating elegant rays. How is it that I am alive? Why is it I’ve known the way back for months now.. yet, I don’t go? I know the way back to Mayport and I know how long it’ll take us to get there. I could tell Greg. But when we get there, I don’t know what I’ll do. Will I find my family dead? Will I find their skeletons in bed, just as I had seen them before I went out that cold damp morning to go hunting. Will I see my home, my life, flattened like I found it hours after the blast. When I told Greg that Mayport was flattened, I meant it. I hadn’t fired yet, but I was lining up for a shot. The deer wasn’t moving, its head tilted, it heard something I didn’t. Suddenly a great noise filled the air, heat swirled around me like I was standing in front of an open oven door. The trees grunted in pain as they got bent diagonally backwards, the deer was instantly shoved to the ground and I flung into a tree, knocking me out. When I awoke, I had a perfect view of Mayport… Destroyed. “Hudson?” Greg asked. Breaking me from my thousand-yard stare. I nodded and looked back at the flames. It was evening now. We needed to sleep. We had another day of going downstream ahead of us.
Short Story: Ticy Life BY ALEX CHI This story is actually based on my life. You see, I was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome last year, which is March 2022. I have been living with this syndrome for over a year now, and I am still having struggles with it. I wanted to write this story because I want to spread awareness about Tourette’s syndrome. PS: This story is connected to the next few parts. It was a Saturday midday of a nice, chill, summer break day. The cool breeze was so relaxing, and the warm sunlight made my eyelids heavier and heavier every second. I was about to fall asleep when suddenly I felt a weird sensation on my left leg. Then, I kicked my left leg, which didn’t make sense because there was no reason for me to do that. “Eh, probably just a weird twitch”, I said to myself to calm myself down. But then, I kicked my left leg again and again. It didn’t stop and kept going, and I was so confused. My mom’s voice broke me away from the repetitive cycle, and I went inside to eat. At the dinner table, I was casually eating my dinner when suddenly I felt the urge to kick my leg again. I tried not to but after suppressing the feeling for about 8 minutes, I finally kicked my leg. “Hey!” said my sister sitting in front of me. She obviously thought I was trying to annoy her. “Sorry…” , I said, not knowing why I should say sorry in the first place. The worst part was that I felt the sensation of kicking my left leg again, and again, and again. “Mom, Alex keeps kicking me.” “Alex, stop joking around and let us have some peace.” “But mom, I can’t help it. I feel like I have to do it or else there’s this weird feeling in my leg.” I said, feeling a sense of frustration. “There’s nothing wrong with you, so just stop bothering your sister.” I felt mad for not being able to control my own body and also getting in trouble for something I can’t help. I felt the urge to kick again, and so I did, which made my sister go to the edge of her patience. “ALEX” “That's it young man, go to your room, now!” I dropped down my fork and got out of my chair, and started to walk to my room. I went up to my room and started crying. “What is going on?” I asked myself. “Why am I losing control over my body and why can’t I stop moving my leg?”. I started crying in bed. I don’t even know how long it’s been, and I started becoming tired, so I just decided to go to bed.
The next day, the weird feeling on my leg disappeared. But for some reason, I felt an itchy uncomfortableness in my throat. I thought it was a cold, so I tried calling my mom, but then suddenly, I shouted the word ba. I kept saying the word ba over and over again. “Ba ba ba ba ba ba” Just then my mom came up to me and said, “Alex, let's go to-, oh wow you’re already dressed up! Impressive. Okay, let’s go to the car now. You don’t want to be late for the first day of school!” That was when I realized that yesterday was the last day of summer break, and I just spent it by sleeping? I felt so disappointed in myself. I walked to the car but the “ba” thing didn’t go away. When I was in the car, I kept saying “ba” over and over again. “Ba” “Ba? Oh you mean buy? What do you want me to buy for you?” “Ba” “Alex, just stop” “Ba” “Just stop it okay? You’re driving me crazy!” “Mom, I can't help it!” I said, and this time, I felt so frustrated I started to cry. Maybe because of the tears, my mom felt that I was being for real. “What do you mean you can’t help it?” “I keep feeling this weird thing in my body and it disappears whenever I do a specific thing”, I said while crying. “Did you feel the same during yesterday's dinner? Is that why you kicked your legs?” “YES,” I said in relief, knowing that my mom finally understood Suddenly, my mom stopped driving, Thchanged the location of the GPS to the hospital, and turned to the left. “Mom? Where are you going? No, where are we going??” “To the hospital.” “Then what about school?” “It’s okay, I will call the school.” “But why are we going there?” “To find some answers.” It was a long ride to the hospital, but when we arrived, I got nervous because obviously the waiting room would be quiet, and I didn’t want to bother the silent atmosphere. The moment I opened the room, the air conditioner came right into my face, drying my eyes. My mom and IMe and mom went and sat on a seat and waited for one of the nurses to call my name. I looked around the waiting room. There were several pictures in frames on the walls, so I was pretty entertained. I was scanning through the pictures when suddenly I felt the urge to say the word “ba” again. I started panicking, and my legs and hands started to shake. I tapped on my mom’s shoulder and said in a small voice, “Mom, I feel the weird feeling again” “Oh, okay. It’s okay. Everything will be fine.”
“Tha-” That is when I started saying “ba’’ again. This time, in a much bigger voice. Everyone started staring at me, even the kids looked at me suspiciously. I felt my face burn and my face turning red. I wanted to hide in a mouse hole. Luckily, though, the nurse called me in, so I rushed inside. I went inside the doctor’s office and sat down on a chair in front of the desk of the doctor. I was pretty nervous, thinking what would be wrong with me. I kept making the sound and the doctor started examining me. I got more nervous than before. Then the doctor started asking me questions. “When did you start acting this way?”, he asked. “Last night at around 6 AM. I started kicking my leg up in the air.” “Do you feel any urge to do it or any weird, uncomfortable sensations before doing it?” “Yes, how’d you know?” The doctor stared at me and sighed, made a serious face, and turned around to my mom. “Ma’am. I have some bad news.” The room turned silent and all I heard was the ticking of the clock.
A Review of Lee Yone’s ‘Surviving Romance’ BY HYONSAN KIM I started this webtoon last year when I first moved to Korea. Reading it was a thrilling, addicting experience and I finished all 58 episodes in just two days. Then the end of 2022 marked the webtoon’s return with season 2, and finished just last month. I decided it would be fitting to start the new year with an article summarizing my final thoughts on this webtoon. Surviving Romance is about a young woman being transferred into the protagonist (Chaerin Eun) of her favorite romance novel “I’ll Love You Every Day.”But, Chaerin’s path towards a happy ending becomes interrupted by a zombie apocalypse. To survive in the apocalypse, she needs the help of her classmates, who she must become close to in order to survive.Season 1 finished with Chaerin realizing that she cannot leave a single one of her classmates, now friends, behind, and deciding that she will no matter what bring them all back into her own world. Throughout Season 2, we get to dive deeper into the thoughts of Chaerin’s fellow classmates and into how the world of the story functions. Now that the series is complete, my rating and opinions of this webtoon have changed a bit from the first season.
Starting with the positives, each of the side characters in the story all got their own character development and their own chance to showcase their abilities and personality. The moment the characters push the boundaries of their roles in the story is the moment when they are able to fully gain a free will and escape their story. As an example, we can see the character of Ji Hyun Jung learns that it’s okay to rely on others sometimes. In her first life in Season 1, she sees herself as less valuable to the team because of her leg injury.
In this season, we learn she is part of the volleyball team, and wants to feel useful to whatever team she is contributing to. However, her leg injury means she can’t contribute her athletic abilities to the team as much. This leads to her feeling insecure about her selfworth, as we see her sacrificing herself so that the others can move on to the next step of their plan. Granted, we do know that she was already bitten, but we know she also did this out of her lack of self-worth. In her second life in season 2, when her group is separated from the others and cornered by the mutant zombies that are almost indestructible. She tells everyone once again, as she did in her previous life, that she will run out with her music to distract the zombies and lead them outside so that the school is safe. Ji Hyun isn’t bitten this time, but she does this because she would “rather die than be a hindrance” (Episode 77).
Thankfully, Huisu and her friends are able to stop her in time and show her that they still care for her. That’s when both Ji Hyun and the audience realize that what Jihyun was thinking while running from the zombies in her previous life was that she wanted to live and for someone to remember her.
By showing up to save her and her group, Huisu and her friends show her that she is important and cherished in their team even with her broken leg. Jihyun’s growth as a character was her realizing that what she really wanted was to live and be cherished by others, and realizing that it’s okay to rely on others for help. Secondly, the webtoon really knows how to strategically engage its audience and make them want to continue reading. Many of the chapters end with either a character’s revelation or in the middle of another conflict that makes the reader more to see what new information the characters have discovered or how the conflict resolves itself. Of course another key aspect that plays into how addictive a story can be depends also on the one’s own preferences, but I definitely believe that this and being able to get the characters into the main action quickly is key to hook the reader immediately before they get bored. We can use the webtoon School Bus Graveyard as an example which has a similar theme of friendship and being hunted by zombie-like creatures. This story starts off by presenting the characters already in the main conflict: they are stuck with zombies in their dreams that can hurt their actual bodies in the real world. However, it then shifts to talking about what happened in the past for the characters to end up this way for at least the first 1- chapters. This personally took me out of the story. In my opinion, it would be better if the story in the “past” wasn’t told too long or instead told in fragments so that the reader gets to know more about how the characters ended up in their current predicament while being engaged by the present-day action. Moving on, the two main issues that I and other readers had was the fact that key parts of the plot development was quite rushed and the fact that the anti-villains/villains of the story didn’t get enough time to showcase their full complexity.
We can see this in the character of Jeha, who throughout almost the whole series remains a puppet under the control of either the devil or the real Chaerin from the novel, and is essentially just a tool for them to hinder the heroes and catalyst for their own goal of leaving the place. He doesn’t realize that none of his “feelings” for Chaerin are his, until the very end of the series when Chaerin finally tells him that she never loved him. The turning point on the side of our heroes was when Jeha, the main love interest of Chaerin, realized that the person he was confessing to wasn’t the real Chaerin. However, we don’t get to spend any time with Jeha’s character to know why he would suddenly realize this when all we’ve seen of him so far is him being completely under the control of the devil and the original plotline. It makes this plot twist where the characters are able to gain free will through Jeha’s revelation feel unplanned and rushed, because we don’t get to see Jeha go through even half of the journey that Huisu went through in order to have the will to escape. Moving on to the second point, I believe the villains could have had their backstories extended a bit more, so that we could understand their characters better. The tricky part I think with making the villain suddenly a good guy is that you want to have just enough buildup, and drop enough hints for the characters to realize that, oh, maybe there’s a hidden motivation. However, I think the twist of Chaerin actually wanting Jeha, her chosen love interest, to escape the novel world after she first escapes, was delivered too suddenly and without properly exploring the mindset, that led her to decide that she truly loved him. Logically speaking, why would Chaerin be so sure that she loves Jeha of her own will, and not just because the voices have been telling her to for so long that she now believes they are true? Earlier in the story, she has a whole breakdown over the fact that nothing in her life is “real” and begs Jeha to say something that isn’t scripted. This could imply that she also wants Jeha to break free, but it doesn’t really mean that she’s in love with him. To love someone you need to get to know who they really are, but since Jeha is still acting under the control of the novel, he isn’t showing his true self, and therefore there is no real reason why she should believe that Jeha actually, by his own will loves her.
Overall, it’s an amazing story and journey for anyone who feels like they are too pressured to follow the so-called orders of our society that also encourages us to build connections with the “unknown extras” of our world so that life is worth living. Overall, I rate this webtoon 7 out of 10 stars.