essay

MY BEST FRIENDS

Yonghyun Chung

Everybody has a special person. For some people, the special one would be their parents. For some other people, the special one would be a high school teacher. For me, I have friends who are special, thankful and are to die for and they have changed my life.

I first met my friends in elementary school in South Korea. At that time, we did not know our friendships would last this long. My friends lived around my house and we always hung out together and went to school together every in the morning. We also got into the same middle school and did the stupid things that are such great memories now. Unfortunately, we had to go to different high school, since we had a different goal. One of my friends got into a high school which was famous as Judo. Other friends went to different high school because they would not go to college and would get a job after high school. However, we always spent time together, even if we went to different high school. When I was 10th grade, I had to decide if I would go to Thailand or not because my family would move to Thailand for my father’s job. However, I was not going to follow my family to Thailand because I wanted to spend more time with my friends at that time and I also was afraid of living in other country without my friends. Whatever the reason was, I thought my friends would like and support my decision. However, all of my best friends encouraged me to go to Thailand and said “That would be a great opportunity to widen your view and to experience something you cannot experience in Korea. Even though we want to go to other country to study, we cannot go and we do not have that opportunity, so I think you should go to Thailand and start studying.” As soon as I heard what they said, I could felt how much they cared about me and I decided to go to Thailand with my family for my future. Living in Thailand without my friends at the very first was hard and lonely, but I kept in touch with my friends and sometimes my friends mailed me Korean food and hand-written letters to Thailand. Every time I got packages from my friends, I promised myself that I would succeed and pay them back later. For me who did not like studying and had never studied from elementary school, it was hard to keep up with other students and I was frustrated sometimes. Every time I felt frustrated, my friends always encouraged me. After graduation from high school in Thailand, I was being concerned of going to America to study and my friends also supported my plan studying in the U.S. Without their support, I would not have come to the United States. Nowadays, they still mail me some Korean food and letters. I got a package from them two weeks ago. Our friendships have been lasted for 14 years and will be forever.

For me, my friends are sometimes my kids, my teacher, and my parents. Since they have supported me with their real heart, I have been able to decide something hard to decide by myself and to go forward to something I was afraid of. My friends have been my motivation of my life and supporters. I really appreciate that they have been always on my side. With this I pay tribute to friendships that last eternity. Thank you.