What was on the Mr.Moon's facebook

I don't recommend that you ask questions in your essays - even if you mean them rhetorically - but I just loved the way this student started his/her essay. So much so I am posting it here:

"Have you ever seen a sunflower heading towards the golden sun, full of respect and purity? That clear eye of the sunflower is above Nirvana, beyond Samsara, inscribing Dhammapada with fire. A great leader - leading his generation or the world - should contain the 'sunflower eye.'

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This was my essay! I feel good to see this on Mr.Moon's face book! Next time, I mustn't ask question in my essay. But I still can't understand the exact reason why it isn't allowed.

Reading Journal - The Body - the first 30 pages

The beautiful legacy of The Body is the very first paragraph that describes the precious words which were buried deeply in our heart, and when those were; those also were elusive and unseen. I think almost people are not aware of the fact that the most things are the hardest things to say. I was about to cry when I read this paragraph, just like I got consolation of figuring out why the world looked so sad. Words diminish and shrinks the limitless light, unable to catch, by turning the facts into no more than living size. Even if everyone reads this paragraph, the secret will stay locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.

I grew up and I am still growing. The age of 17 approaches me more like a little girl than an adult, who doesn’t know how high one can jump and how harsh the wave of the world is. The power of 17 comes out from the fact that 17 doesn’t know and begins to open the eyes. They get hurts a lot by storm of worries, hardships, and mistakes- as adults express the 17, an age of storm and gale. I love the age 17, but actually it’s hard to love the truth that you’re at the age 17. Even the age-12 going on 13- was much lower than 17 in The Body, I somehow felt circulation or situation of apprehension that overlaps with me in some way- which I’ll get sure by the end of this story.

With intense individuality, the 4 main characters start a journey of finding the dead body; a journey to fall from innocence and get near to the corruption as turning to 13. They crashed out to the shallowness of the society from their own world of small house up in the elm tree that divided them from themselves and the world outside. When we are at the age of 12 or 13, we all have a world for just our childhood, sharing only with the close friends. No one can understand the small world, and the members in there feel strong solidarity that makes them feel like they can survive on an uninhabited island if they’ve got each other. I discovered this relationship among them as thick as their unconscious anger toward their family. However, the construction of world out of friendship might add more sorrow when turning into an attacker from a defender of the gross world. The deeper you get obsessed of, the harder you try to get out.

I’ve read until the short story told by Gordy during their journey. The story is getting more excited and complicated. Stephen King slowly reveals the characters with impact of each line they say. They behave exactly like innocent teenage boys; they joke dirty, play naughty, and think uniquely. I want to keep an eye on them and reveal how they reach the end of the story with conclusion. I want to see the reflection of myself through the story and get comfort of my age 17.

I still see some coincidence with the story The shawshank as I keep moving sentence by sentence. The code of American culture which was Rita Hayworth or Raquel Welch in Shawshank, in The Body, it is the songs to reveal the cultural code of the generation. The seasonal background, summer, provokes curiosity how the author will draw autumn from summer, similar with Shawshank pulled the sense of spring from different seasonal background, just by the story itself. I’ll keep reading and see how my emotion changed with the first 30pages reading journal.

Metafiction

Figuring the Manito Out

Student #1

Yesterday, the Manito play had ended by revealing all the matches. And now, I’m reading a small essay about Manito in the newspaper of KMLA, indulging in reminiscence of all the episodes related to my Manito.

'Manito' has been a great issue in KMLA. I once heard that Manito is an Italian word that means secret angel or unknown friend who helps certain person. I got a message from number '1004', the Manito, who has written a sweet sentence for me. 

As I read the first paragraph, I started to doubt if my Manito was really an angel; not as a good meaning but in a sense of nonexistence with mysterious ability.  

Although, the message was very simple, I was delighted to start a day smiling by the message. I also have sent cheering message for my Manitee-the one who has me as one’s Manito- and that made me feel joy of being a Manito. ‘Manito’ system seems to delight both of the roles: role of being a Manito and having a Manito. What is the true value or meaning of Manito?

As the word ‘message’ appeared, I remembered how strange all the messages from my Manito were. My Manito could be a devil, an angel or even an alien far from earth. My Manito predicted what will happen on that day and advised me how to avoid dangers or how to catch the chances without any mistakes. As all those predictions turned out to be true, I kept on wondering who my Manito would be-as revealed later, there was actually no one.

I guess a Manito is supposed to create a secret bond that connects two different, totally discrete people. Even though not recognizable, the person who receives messages or gifts from his Manito will feel blissful by the thought of someone taking care of him. Maybe a Manito, just like its meaning, is really an angel: hidden like one and benevolent like one.

I couldn’t feel the connection between me and my Manito even my Manito sent me a lot of messages and gifts. I thought all those presents were affectation without sincere care about me. My Manito always knew what I wanted and needed that he or she always gave me the one I desired for any reasons. My Manito should have been a benevolent one and a hidden one.

Most importantly, the last message from my Manito is the scariest one, now I figure out.

I like Manito system-it gives a hope that one may be saved from the status quo of loneliness. It gives even the geekest people the feeling that someone cares for them. If Manito system can give hope to the most excluded of our society, the sense of being ‘one’, and then there lies the hint to the solution of the problems we face.

Would you believe if the last message was exactly the same with the paragraph above and added with a short message saying, “Hey! Tomorrow you’ll have the Manito revelation without your Manito! This long paragraph is what I wrote and what you’ll see tomorrow! I thought it would be rude if I won’t let you know who I am, so let me give you a hint. I am here to destroy you, to get in reach of you and to make you feel happy.”

Manito seems fun and merely a game. However, Manito has rather great power of providing hopes and smiles. To interpret it backward, maybe people are lonely just as much as to want for some cheering messages. If we could be somehow Manitos to each other all the time, KMLA will be in an ecstasy of hope. 

As I finish the whole essay, I feel some kind of real end of my Manito relationship. I have all the messages from Manito including the gifts. I can’t really get the meaning of the hint he sent me. The hint is so contradictory of saying; he or she tried to destroy me by making me feel happy. To underestimate the accomplishment of his plan, I’ll say he had failed. First of all, I wasn’t happy with his every messages or gifts. Secondly, I am not destroyed. His messages might not mean superficial meaning, and rather implicating profound signification.

I won’t allow my curiosity drive me in a condition of getting crazy at challenging to figure out the Manito since that would make me seem to be servile to the Manito. I will just skip the memory and live as I live-moving on to tomorrow.

 Student #2

Manito is such a weird thing as your emotion is totally different before you know who it is, and after you know who it was. I recommend you not to figure out who the Manito is if you want to keep the warmth or impression for a long time. I tell you this by my experience:

At the very first of this month, our school started Manito by picking up the paper randomly to match girls and boys. I’ve picked up a boy who I totally don’t know that I can’t have any feeling or plan of concept to treat him as a Manito. I wonder who got my lot and how he thinks or tries to handle it. I know it is stupid, but I started to imagine something foolish like the one I have a crush on picked my lot and sincerely treats me sweet that in the end we started to write a lovely story together that is just for between us- a sweet romance. I know this would never happen just by seeing the percentage of him getting my lot. If someone who doesn’t try to participate in this Manito has got my lot, I will be very sad and depressed in which there’s no one who can energize me.

But now I know that I didn’t have to worry this but another: Not all nice Manitos remain sweet in the end.

You know what!! I’m such a lucky girl to have an awesome Manito! I love my Manito so much! I think I am going to fall in love with him if I figure him out! Every message from him is so sweet that makes my day beautiful! Every day, he sends me those sweet messages with a lot of cookies and cans of juice! He even gave me a big teddy bear doll that costs 10000 won! If I see friends around me, I cannot find better Manito than I’ve got. All of my roommates envy me and this makes me more enjoyable with the presents.

Every morning, I receive sweet messages from number 1004 such as,

“I can see you studying hard every time! I think you look lovely when you focus deeply on studying. Here are the beef jerky and warm caramel macchiato. Cheer up and I wish you break a leg on the math quiz on this Friday! Ah, also here are the cup noodles you love. Don’t skip lunch or dinner to keep your cute face^^ Sleep early and be happy~” that I can’t help liking him. How can you hate him if he cares me really delicately?

After Honjung, it’s really happy to check my mailbox if there’s present from Manito since I can get almost every day. Last time, there was a chocolate and an energy bar. I really like his sense of choosing the gift.

As time goes, I am getting so curious who the Manito is. Who can be that benevolent? I have no idea at all. But I promise whoever it is, I will show him how much I feel thankful by a lot of sweets and presents just as he had done.

To shortly inform, I didn’t keep my promise.

Today, I will meet my Manito face to face and exchange the presents. As I was standing alone at the center of the hall, somebody poked my back. I turned around hearing the boy saying, “Hey, I was your Manito, the 1004.” He was holding out his hand with a pencil and an old looking diary.

I couldn’t feel any pleasure of receiving and I couldn’t figure out any great sense of choosing the gift like before; rather, I was unpleasant to get an old looking diary which seemed to be used. I shortly said, thanks, and turned coldly, without any warm facial expression.

You might think me as a really bad girl. How dare I don’t even show a little sincere appreciation? But I am sure that everyone would have behaved as I had. He was the well-known boy as a nerd in my school. No one wants to talk with him or get related. The great silky mood I was in until yesterday was all gone at once. No romance, no impression, nothing. As I read the messages from him again, I felt weird instead of getting touched. My heart froze and stopped beating fast by the gifts. I even feel like there was no such thing as Manito. He’s just a nerd, who can’t give impression to others. He’s a nerdy nerd that my image will be ruined to have a sweet conversation with him. More than being a Manito, being a nerd can’t be neglected.

Symptoms of Unrequited Love

 Before working with the metafiction, I translated this into English from Korean. This was once hot issue in the internet in the site Naver. This was actually 40 symptoms, but I deleted some that seemed to be duplicated of or overlapped with the before one.

I think this is quite interesting :

Symptoms of Unrequited Love

0.You are glad to hear the ringtone of the one you have a crush on.

1.    The words he inadvertently speaks out hurts your heart.

2.So you might hate him instantly.

3.But again, you can find yourself crushing on him when talking with him.

4.You sometimes play hard to get without any reason.

5.(On the messenger) Just to have a short 10 minute greeting or conversation  you wait for 3 hours.

6. At one moment, you prepare to leave him. But actually, he never ever have left you or been with you.

7. Thinking about him, you listen to pretty love songs. Then gradually turns to sad love songs.

8.You feel resented to hear the news that he has a new lover. At the same time, you regret not having confessed about your emotion.

9. Your emotion shimmers by every word he says.

10. Every night, you cry thinking about him.

11.If his Ms. right is far from you, you can’t help sighing deeply.

12. On the messenger, if he talks to you first, you go crazy.

13. It’s hard to delete his texts in the cellphone.

14. You’re all alone. Loving and waiting all alone.

15. All the songs about crush, are all your songs.

16.You promise yourself not to like him anymore as you want to see him right at the moment.

17. You wish if he could figure out your feeling before you tell him and confess to you first.

18. You pretend not to be sad at all when he talks about his girlfriend.

19. You delude yourself into believing he loves you too.

20. You think you erased him, but your heart beats again as you see him or receive messages from him.

21. You give greater meaning to his meticulous and unwittingly behaving actions.

22. You try to be pokerfaced in front of him. But as you turn your back, you smile a broad smile.

23. If you meet him accidently on a street, you keep imaging the scene the whole day.

24. You sympathize with these symptoms.

25. You cannot face him properly.

26. You can’t hate him even he makes you depressed.

27. You cry listening to the songs he loved.

28. Wherever you go, your head is filled with him.

29. At the times you feel down, you remind of the sweet memories with him to cheer up.

30. If he logs in the messenger, your heart starts to stump.

31. Feel painful and difficult.

32. You keep wishing stupid things.

33. You wish to see him in your dreams.

34. You can smile, laugh or cry if you think of him.

35. You feel a sense of inferiority about him, so seldom, you feel angry.

36. If you see a piece of nice writing, you think of him first.

The Writing Assignment

The temple was in a place that felt like the time would stop by and the wind would remain calm. It must have been silent but dynamic full of reverence of nature. The boy monk seemed to be the purity of all the nature around the temple. He played around with fish, dog, tree and went to get some plants to eat. He was innocent, naive and young. He was able to accept what gets into his mind that prooves how weak the heart of a human is. He learned from his monk about the plants, at the end, the value of lives. I wonder why he had turned so sadistic and rude toward the sincerity of nature that he must have knew since he is living at the core beauty of the nature.
The stone, limiting the possibility of a life, killed the fish, snake and the frog's instinct ability to climb up the stone by letting the frog indulged into the impossibility. The little monk, laughing at the striving of the animals made people astonish with fear.
The old monk let the little monk feel the heaviness of his great sin physically and heartly as doing the same think as the little monk. Fortunately, as the old monk had intended, the little monk realized how to feel the precious pleasure of living with lives. This is how to represent spring by revealing the awe of lives and mature of human.

Hero's journey in class

Story: Up (Pixar)


ACT I

1. Ordinary World:

Suburbian America

2. Call to Adventure:

Meets Ellie, his wife

3. Refusal of the Call:

For a few years after his wife’s death, he tries to forget the plans they made together.

4. Meeting the Mentor:

He comes across an old scrapbook of his wife’s, and memories come rushing back.

5. Crossing the Threshold:
He attaches balloons to the top of his house and flies off.

ACT II

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies:
Meets Russell, the bird Kevin, and the dog. He also comes across a pack of Muntz’s vicious trained dogs.

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave:
Meets Muntz: the admired scientist who turns out to be evil.

8. Ordeal:
The fight for the bird up in the air

9. Reward:
The bird returning home and the death of the enemy

ACT III

10. The Road Back:
Getting back to their home

11. Resurrection:

12. Return With the Elixir:

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not finished yet :p

The chain writing

Nowadays, 'Manito' is a great issue in KMLA. I once heard that Manito is an Italian word that means secret angel or unknown friend who helps certain person. I got a message from number '1004', the Manito, who has written a sweet sentence for me. Although, the message was very simple, I was delighted to start a day smiling by the message. I also have sent cheering message for my Manitee-the one who has me as one’s Manito- and that made me feel joy of being a Manito. ‘Manito’ system seems to delight both of the roles: role of being a Manito and having a Manito. What is the true value or meaning of Manito? (Lee Ji Young)

I guess a Manito is supposed to create a secret bond that connects two different, totally discrete people. Even though not recognizable, the person who receives messages or gifts from his Manito will feel blissful by the thought of someone taking care of him. Maybe a Manito, just like its meaning, is really an angel: hidden like one and benevolent like one. (Jong Hyun Han)

In KMLA, the tradition was to start the ‘Manito’ a month before the Christmas party and reveal the Manitos at the party. This year however, we voted on whether to do the Manito once or twice. The result was, of course, the latter. The main reason is to increase the possibility. (Woo Chan Hwang)

I like Manito system-it gives a hope that one may be saved from the status quo of loneliness. It gives even the geekest people the feeling that someone cares for them. For instance, my roommate, Woochan, reacts so strongly to every message he receives from the Manito. When he got a message that said that the Manito wishes Woochan a good day, he was practically humming all day. If Manito system can give hope to the most excluded of our society, the sense of being ‘one’, and then there lies the hint to the solution of the problems we face. (Seong Un Si)

Manito seems fun and merely a game. However, Manito has rather great power of providing hopes and smiles. To interpret it backward, maybe people are lonely just as much as to want for some cheering messages. If we could be somehow Manitos to each other all the time, KMLA will be in an ecstasy of hope.  (Lee Ji Young)

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I modified the starting paragraph, but for other paragraphs, I tried to keep the liveliness of other classmates' own writing style and implication.