Essay for NYU... please help me

danhyoo
Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:49:32 +0000

Sorry… dont read the previous post… this is the new and revised… please comment, feedback, tips… THANX GUYS

An event that matured me to confidence to confront strangers was on a plane. It occurred on a jet plane back to New Jersey from a technology conference in Silicon Valley, California. Although I was active with schoolwork as I was invited to this conference, I was not interactive with strangers, even at the conference all by myself with new faces for eleven days. Shy and aloof to those whom I did not have to interact with, I usually ignored strangers around me - those who walked by on the street, those who used the urinal before I did, and those who sat next to me on planes. It was an unexpected day when a man leaned back against me, the day that changed my way of approaching people.
I sat down on my seat on the plane and took out a book, and entered a different world. Deep into the story, I felt a wall slowly closing in front of me slowly. Waking me back into sad world again, I noticed a heavy man in front of me wanting to be comfortable by leaning his chair back into my knee. Okay, he will probably notice that he is a little too far back any time.
360 seconds past, and now the attack were pouring onto my defenseless knee. I tried to retreat from the heavy attack, but there was nowhere to run. I tried to budge my way left. Failed. I tried to budge my way right. Failed. Oh my goodness, my next stop is going to be the hospital if I don’t think of something quick. I thought hard. Should I call support from other two limbs above the helpless knee? I was in desperate need. I placed my hands on the backseat ahead of me, and pushed it slowly and subtly to lessen the force on my knees. It warded off the pain temporarily, but my support soon faded. There must be a way.
I did not dare ask the older, larger man in front me. I was the one that kept my mouth shut and held my selfish favors to myself. Raised in a Korean family, I was taught to treat the elder with the utmost respect. My family lived a feudal system, where the oldest is the king and the youngest is the peasant. I was going against an omnipotent king.
Tables needed to be turned. I had to take actions for myself and go on the attack myself. With ferocity, I viciously retaliated by asking cordially “excuse me sir. Is it okay if you can move up your seat just a little, it’s touching my knee” concluding with a gentle smile. “Oh of course. No problem.” He adjusted the seat, and the backseat slowly backed away from its victims, letting regaining life after the dreadful damage. “Thank you sir, it’s much better now”
This 10-minute event matured me to have confidence to confront strangers. Two weeks ago, I saw one of my timid friends scratching his head, struggling over a math problem. After seeing him, a flashback went through my head of me in the airplane ride struggling, I sat next to him and supported his war against a calculus problem on derivatives, concluding this struggle in less than a minute.