[Student Voices] The Mirror I Made
Published: 17 Nov. 2025, 13:05
Jihoon Yeon, SEOUL SEOI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
by Jihoon Yeon, SEOUL SEOI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
I held the latest Wimpy Kid book and looked up when the next one would be published. “One more year?”
I couldn’t wait a day. But a whole year? Then I thought: “Why don’t I write my own novel?”
A few weeks later I was in my room, writing about a 12-year-old American boy afraid of plane crashes and heights, on an isolated island, hungry and thirsty, running away from Max the werewolf.
Writing this book gave me a chance to look back and see my problems and bad habits. Like my main character, I also have a fear of heights and plane crashes. The first time I rode a plane, I was four years old, sitting in the window seat. I saw clouds and drops of rain against the window and began to feel afraid. The fear has remained. Last year, on a flight to the U.S., I felt turbulence and had a vision of the plane crashing. This is how the main character of my book ended up on the island. While my fear has stayed the same, I learned there is a chance I could survive the crash – just like my main character survived on an isolated island.
After I wrote how the 12-year-old American boy trusts everything that Max the werewolf says, I realized that I also trust everyone, even when my classmates say very strange things. Once, my friend said that there was a red book buried in the schoolyard. He said that if you see the red book – you die. It made me feel scared. Of course, I found out later that it was just a joke. In my book, Max tells my main character that he’s millions of years old, and that he’s a great scientist. Of course, he’s neither of those things. Once I saw the connection between me and my main character, I realized that I have to think twice before accepting what people say.
My book also revealed one of my worst habits – waiting a split second before the deadline to get something done. Like Max chasing the boy on the island, deadlines were always right behind me, breathing down my neck. Would I ever learn how to escape? When I realized my book was reflecting my procrastination, I tried to fix it by completing my homework a day or two before the deadline. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as my book’s main character, who got trapped in a cave with a bomb in it. He waited until the last minute to get out of there – right before the bomb exploded.
Writing my book wasn’t just simply writing, but it was becoming another person. A person who helped me to see myself. As I wrote my book, I saw myself in a perspective different from ever before. I saw a fresh angle of my life and thoughts – as if I was making my own mirror that reflected me, and this mirror revealed the things I had overlooked.
After writing my book, I read the new Wimpy Kid book that was published a few months later. And I thought, “This is better than my book. This is more entertaining than my book. This is more fluent than my book.” Then I asked myself, “Which one gave me more? The bestseller read by millions of people? Or the book that only my family saw?” The answer is writing my own book.
I hope everybody realizes that experience is the best present. Not for Christmas, but for our whole lives.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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