In this blog post, I will summarize what I learned and felt through the academic efforts I made, as well as my school activities and collaborative experiences, during my time in high school.

Academic Efforts and Learning Experiences

I tried to study harder than ever before, but when my results didn’t improve as much as I’d hoped, I decided, “Since my grades aren’t improving anyway, I might as well try every possible method.” I tried every study method my friends were using—from cram schools and private tutoring to online lectures and study groups—to find the one that worked best for me. Throughout the first semester, I tried various study methods that might have looked like aimless wandering to others, but in the process, I found a method I could do without stress and actually enjoy. Among the many options, the method that suited me best was “self-study,” where I organized my notes on my own and watched lectures by myself. Since the act of competing itself felt like a huge burden to me, studying with friends or trying to meet expectations while being taught by someone else didn’t work well for me. So, I quit all tutoring and cram schools and decided to focus solely on EBS lectures and my regular school classes. Putting this into practice was much harder than I expected. I had previously relied solely on cram schools and tutors, so I didn’t fully concentrate during my teacher’s classes, and since watching lectures was a battle I had to fight alone, it was difficult to stick to my plan. So, I adjusted my lecture-watching schedule in my own way. I developed the habit of focusing completely during class, and I structured my lecture listening time exactly like a school class, including a 10-minute break, to help my body adapt to the study schedule. Since studying alone makes it easy to get lazy, I made sure to strictly stick to my schedule. As I studied while adhering to this schedule, my grades gradually improved. I believe the secret to improving my grades was “keeping my time commitments.” Studying is a promise you make to yourself. I used my time as efficiently as possible to keep that promise, and I believe my grades improved as a reward for keeping it. This study habit also instilled in me a mindset to keep my promises to myself in areas beyond just studying.

Meaningful School Activities

Creating the Classroom That Makes You Most Want to Study

Every year, our school held an event to select the most eye-catching classroom. It was an event where homeroom teachers and students decorated their classrooms together, aimed at refreshing the rigid atmosphere of studying. Since the prize money and benefits were better than expected, many teachers and students brainstormed ideas and decorated their classrooms each year to be selected as the best-decorated class. I had narrowly missed first place and finished second in my first year, so I was determined to make our class win first place in my second year. Having enjoyed decorating my own room since I was young, I put my natural talent to use, coming up with ideas for classroom decoration and putting them into practice. I placed particular importance on color. I realized that selecting just one or two accent colors and using them consistently would create a sense of unity in the classroom and make it look brighter and more vibrant. Rather than using a chaotic mix of colors, I decided to stick to just two accent colors. I conducted a survey among my classmates to select the two most preferred colors. Those colors turned out to be light pink and a light lavender-blue. The combination of these two colors turned out to be more beautiful than I had expected, so I began using them as accent colors to decorate the class schedule, the classroom door, the teacher’s desk, and the back wall of the classroom. I avoided using other colors and focused solely on these two accent colors to decorate the classroom elements. As a result, the classroom received praise for its stylish design and won first place. I demonstrated exceptional talent in environmental design, to the point where my teacher told me I absolutely had to pursue design, which is what led me to start dreaming of a career in design.

Art Direction for the Drama Club

I was in charge of art direction within the drama club, responsible for creating the stage backdrops. For the play to shine and for the audience to focus on my friends’ performances, the stage setting was crucial. Feeling the weight of that responsibility, I analyzed the script and did my best to design backdrops that perfectly suited each play. In particular, I couldn’t just use any furniture on stage; I had to select pieces that matched the script’s atmosphere and facilitated the actors’ movements. I also did a lot of research to make the set feel like a real-life space. After all that hard work, when the play opened and many friends told me they were moved by it, I was deeply moved as well. This is because being moved by the play meant that the chemistry between the actors and the director had reached its peak. Furthermore, set design was crucial for capturing the atmosphere of the script as accurately as possible; since the play’s emotional impact depended on how well the set design aligned with the script, I was deeply moved whenever I heard praise from my friends. While designing spaces in the play that we commonly see in real life, I felt inspired to study not just the spaces within the play but the spaces we universally use in daily life, which led me to decide to major in Interior Environment Design.

Examples of Practicing Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation

Teaching a Junior Who Only Wanted to Do Notable Things Many of the students who wanted to join the theater club did so to stand out or to be in the spotlight. However, the theater club wasn’t just a place for actors, and in theater, the actor isn’t necessarily the protagonist or the one with the most important role. Yet, some juniors who joined to act didn’t seem to take the various tasks required for the production seriously. I decided I needed to help them realize that theater isn’t just about acting, so I didn’t assign them roles or even give them tasks. Instead, I simply had them observe everything we did to prepare for the performance. The other seniors and friends were all aware of my intention and joined in. I gave them this opportunity because I expected that even though they initially insisted they wouldn’t participate unless they were actors, they would eventually change their minds. At first, the juniors resented us for not immediately casting them as “actors,” wearing displeased expressions. However, as they observed the entire process of preparing the play from start to finish, they gradually came to realize that theater does not exist solely for the actors; rather, “actors” are merely one component of the production, and the play is only truly complete when each role is fulfilled properly. Finally, when the play went on stage with all elements—direction, set design, art, and acting—harmoniously coming together, and the performance ended successfully, the juniors who had caused trouble came back to me and confessed that they had repented for their mistakes. They admitted that they hadn’t realized how much preparation a play required and that their belief that only actors were the protagonists had been foolish. I was deeply grateful that my juniors had taught me this lesson. Afterward, they told me that instead of insisting on being actors, they first considered what they were good at when volunteering for the play, and that they were deeply moved by experiencing firsthand the entire process of how a play comes together through collaboration. Through this experience, they were able to share the importance of cooperation with others, and I, too, was able to reaffirm my commitment to cooperation through this opportunity.