But! I don't think it's too late to start looking for the answer

After all, I am still 17 years old. hehe

Natural Way.

Parc de la Gatineau, Le parc de conservation de la capitale.

The Lock.

Time Lapse.

Between the season to season, many things, including this photo, didn't work out as I wanted them to be

#HappeningNow.

This is it. Everything I had in Ottawa will be shipped back to South Korea across the Pacific ocean.

I'll be making a new start with nothing but three bags and a box in Toronto from this September :)

It feels like I am becoming a 21st century nomad.

Ottawa Citizen

New York got Times

Washington got Post

Chicago got Tribune

Toronto got Star

Vancouver got Sun

and Ottawa got Citizen

Be Thankful for Brick Walls.

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!" - from the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Disney's The Lion King.

12 years ago, my mom often put on the Lion King home video and we used to watch it together.

Today, I invited my mom to watch a very special broadway musical that we know in common.

All the musics, actions, stories, and lightings were simply amazing and mind blowing.

It was an unforgettable experience and I was truly overwhelmed by my sweet childhood nostalgia 

National Capital Region.

Volunteering and Bike commuting.

I am currently volunteering at the St.Elizabeth Elementary School near the Carling Avenue as an assistant to the teacher in an international language summer program for aged 6-7 (Junior Kindergarden to First grader). It's only been a short time but I could already tell my popularity in the class is going rocketing high; I frequently become a tree for them to crawl upon and often become a guest whose invited to a tea party or whatever they wanted me to be :). It's very fresh experience to be with these children who aren't exposed to mature values and have different world of their own.

Thankfully, the location of the school is close to a bike pathway, so I started to cycle everyday as a commuting method. The three things I realized are that: there is a lot of bike commuters who head downtown in the morning, which proves that bike can be a good method of transportation, but it really sucks to bike if there is no path (I'm really afraid to ride on a busy road...). Back and forth to my destination is about 16km and I think it's a pretty good exercise.

University Application: Epilogue

I spent over two years on gathering university information and putting effort to find the right university with the right major for me. It was a vast effort of making contacts to various universities to finding the past graduates who went to the school. Although much time was spent on the search, I was not able to find the one specific major from the tons of interesting options. Even though I had no clear idea of what I wanted to study, based on the major interests, I pushed 5 applications to three different universities: McGill, Toronto, Waterloo and 4 different majors : Geography, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Planning. 

Then, well, I'll be honest, things didn't work out as I wanted them to be.

Although my overall marks were good enough for a qualification, the English mark destroyed my chance of getting an acceptance. It was truly horrifying experience and I felt so much regret to disappoint my family and specially, myself. All the self-esteem I gained over all these years were gone in a moment and I felt like a total failure; Sleeping was no longer for a rest but to escape from the reality.

I still regret the fact that I didn't prepare well for the grade 12 English course, which was probably the most important class through out the whole high school. At the same time, I feel thankful to the teacher who made me realize the lack of my English ability and my bad work habit before going to the university. Overall, I didn't successfully end my high school in the way I wanted, but the whole application process has taught me the two things that are going to be important in life: 'Expect the most unexpected' and 'You can't always get what you want (but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need)'.

p.s.

For the record, I received an English mid-term mark of 60 in the class average of 65 and subject average of 77. At the time, I was more pissed on the fact that our class average was much lower compare to the subject average. (blamed it on my luck of getting a good teacher!)

However when a couple of weeks past and the heat cooled down, I finally accepted the truth;  the fact that my English is horrible. Ever since, I worked hard not only to improve the mark but to improve the overall English that I use everyday even on this blog. (I felt extremely sorry for the people who would be reading my post and couldn't understand)

I don't know. People might laugh at me for getting 70 in the grade 12 English course but they would have no idea what this number means compare to the 70 from other teachers; my teacher always told us that average mark in every courses in the current education system are too inflated. Also, people would have know idea how hard it's to get 10% boost within the half of semester. It is truly the symbol of tenacity; The new thing I learned in grade 12, thanks to the teacher.

A Whole New World.

Hello new macbook pro

Experimental Farm.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Congratulation.

The city has already lost the bid twice against Vancouver(2010) and Sochi(2014)

When I took a picture of this billboard last summer, I thought myself that there is no way 'they can do it'.

but I guess I was wrong.

Looks like PyeongChang, South Korea will be hosting 2018 Winter Olympic at last!

#ThirdTimeistheCharm

Commencement.

At first I didn't know why people used the term 'commencement' instead of graduation

As the high school experience is becoming part of the memory, now I see that it was only the end of the beginning

Within a couple of month, I will be living at totally strange place. The place that I've only seen through brochures.

I will be living and studying with the new people.  Getting to know each other from scratch.

-

I wish good luck to my friends who recently left Ottawa and all of my friends around the globe

We may be physically in distance but our memory will hold us together

Lynch-Getty Global Student Award

Honours the legacy of Alex Getty (former trustee of the OCDSB and the OCENET) and Ron Lynch (former Director of Education of the OCDSB and past board member of the OCENET). Both believed that learning to communicate and act globally was important to create a world where people strive to understand and help those near and far. The award is given to a select member of student within the OCDSB that demonstrate leadership in their community through involvement in groups, events and activities, which foster cross-cultural learning and understanding within both school and community.

Originally, I wasn't planning to apply for any scholarship since most of them don't accept an application from an international student. However it turned out to be there is a single scholarship that people like me could apply, so I made a decision to apply when the deadline was only a week away, in the last April; Within that week I had to fill out the form, write an essay, get two letters of confirmation from organizations, and get a letters of recommendation from one of the school staffs.

I guess it was kind of rude to ask them for a quick write up of letters but they were kindly enough to help me. After all, I successfully send off all the documents on friday afternoon by using priority mail envelop, which guaranteed delivery by the monday deadline. Although, one of my program coordinator was away in that month, so I had to get a letter later and send it separately as a late submission (which was also rude).

Despite the chaos that I've been gone through while I was preparing the application, I felt great pleasure through accomplishment. The positive result of being selected was more of an unexpected news and it was truly an 'award'. The plaque indicates that I didn't waste or goofing around the past four years and actually achieved something meaningful.

Now I am a Highschool Grad.

Some say highschool was the best time of their life

Some say highschool was the worst time of their life

Most can agree that highschool was somewhere in between

- I still remember the first day of the school as a first grader in Korea; combined feeling of anxiety and frustration. 

Who would've thought that I'll be finishing my compulsory education in Canada. And blogging about this in English.

- Spending the last four years in Canada, specifically, Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa was definitely worth it. I was able to meet various people with diverse culture and visions. The experience has given me a chance to re-exam my values and paradigm

- It's something I found out from the grad ceremony: a big portion of people (around 70%) who indicated to attend secondary education is either planning to study 'life science' or 'finance'. More specifically, majors like biology, kinesiology, nursing, accounting, economics, and management were dominant than any others.

- Looks like everyone has their own way to go from this point. Although every grads were sitting in the same auditorium with the same gown, they all have different plans for next year; Some are going university within Ottawa, some are going university outside of Ottawa, some are going college, some are going for work, some are coming back for a victory lap, and some are taking a year off for traveling.

I really want to thank my mom and dad who have supported me through out all these years.

They have given me an opportunity to study in Canada. Nothing could've been possible without them.

Royal Visit Canada Day

David Johnston, Governor General of Canada and Sharon Johnston

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada and Laureen Harper

Canadian Gothic.

Glebe Grad '11 Prom

Now I know why people fantasize about prom all the time

TED: 'ideas worth spreading'

TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a global series of conferences initiated by a non-profit organization. Just like their motto 'ideas worth spreading', the conference's  main focus is on presenting speeches from inspirational people of various discipline. Past presenters include famous figures like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Al Gore, and Gordon Brown; the six major disciplines are technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues.

I've been recently spending much time on watching TED videos that are related to my interests; photography, urbanism, sustainability, social change, etc. The experience was truly inspirational and thought provoking. Not only it was a good opportunity of listening to the speakers who are so passionate and has great amount knowledge in their field, but it was a good experience because all of them have the ability to convince their vision and make the listener feel the same way as they do, even the listener had no previous knowledge in the field.

I hope many of you visit their website and start watching videos that are related to your interest. If you don't know where to start, simply click any video that looks interesting from unique categories like 'jaw dropping', 'persuasive', 'courageous', and 'ingenious'. They also provide subtitles for more than 20 languages, which eliminates the language barrier for those who doesn't understand English. Each video doesn't take more than 15 minutes, so I really want to recommend you to watch one video per day before going to sleep. Well at least that's what I've been doing in the past week and keep on doing.

On this post, I'm attaching a very short 5 minute clip that can inspire anyone; it's a short reflection from a guy who was on board of the Flight 1541 that landed on Hudson river in 2009. It's not an academic speech, and more of a storytelling and a self reflection.

Binary Sunset.

I had to look out when the sunset brightly filled up my room.

This reminded me of a classic scene from the Star Wars

Intersection.

Status Update.

1. The Lynch-Getty Global Student Award (+1k Scholarship)
I haven't told anyone about this, but in the April, I applied for the award established by the Ottawa-Carlton Education Network. Last afternoon, I got an unexpected call from the director that I have been selected as one of the four receivers (yikes!). There is a whole 'nother story on the application process but I'll save it for later.

2. University Application
Since there was a deadline extension, I have applied to the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Considering that they give another two weeks for me to write the Supplementary Application Form, I'm expecting to receive a decision around early July.
I don't know the exact English mark that I'm going to get, but I can tell you that I'm feeling optimistic. As soon as I get the mark, I'll be calling the universities  that were feeling 'unfortunate' to me and ask them to reconsider the decision. (University of Toronto at St.George and University of Waterloo).

3. Prom
For a while, I wasn't thinking about going to prom because of the rejections from universities (probably guiltiness of failure?). But what the hell, this is going to be the one and only prom I'm going to have :) so I guess I'll be going! This is happening on the June 24th. (Thanks for changing my mind, mom!)

4. Chicago
This idea has been staying at the corner of my head since the last winter, but I guess it could come true during this summer. I'm hoping to stay in that city for one or two weeks and explore the architecture, urban landscape, contemporary art, and anything that I have interest on.

5. Photography
Looks like in the past months, I haven't taken out my camera often. Although inspirations for pictures are just flooding off my head, I'm just making memos for now instead of spending more time on it.

6. Highschool
There are only two weeks left. Oh wow.