Still Growing

“I don’t know if you’re doing well, but you are still growing.” My parents used to say this to me whenever I felt distressed about my mistakes. A year ago, I was a mere SMT cub reporter, a first year student who feared making mistakes on my SMT articles and university studies. As a cub reporter, I tried to be a perfectionist because working for an English magazine was something I’d dreamt about for a long time. I pushed myself to excel and not to make mistakes. As a first year student, I also studied hard to earn top grades. I was eager to reach perfection. I was obsessed with being perfect on every challenge. However, because I set my goal on perfection, I couldn’t accomplish this every time, so with each failure, I got distressed. I know it’s impossible to do everything perfectly because human beings always make mistakes. It is how humans learn and grow. Once I realized this fact, I realized what my parents’ advice meant.
A new semester has started, and Sookmyungians will face many new challenges. For first year students, it will be a time to begin life as a Sookmyungian. There will be challenges and struggles adapting to a new environment. Firsthand experiences, internships, studying hard to earn good grades, and job preparation are all part of life at university. Each of us will make mistakes. However, we will grow from those mistakes and change for the better. Personally, I face the new challenge of being the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Sookmyung Times. The adventure is both nerve-racking and exciting. I will probably make mistakes throughout my time with SMT as Editor-in-Chief, but I will learn and grow. The adventure will be shared with fellow editors Youbin and Hyerin, so we are all ready to bring to our fellow Sookmyungians something new and exciting. We cannot say what lies ahead, but we do know that we will grow and take our readers on a new adventurous journey.