Elizabeth C., Oakwood High School
The Harmony of Happiness
Nearly two years ago, my father visited his parents in Korea. My brothers are all at their own universities, living their daily life and I was on facetime with them, until we all received a call in our family group chat. When we pick up we realize that my father’s at the hospital with my grandparents, “Halabuji (grandfather in korean) has cancer.” My father starts to cry. And in my 13 years of age I’ve never seen him cry – until now.
Every summer, my family would take a trip to Korea to visit our extended family and friends lived. As a little girl, it’d be something I would wait all year for: the smell of the apartment, the vibrant green of the plentiful plants in the veranda, the blue cabinets of my grandmother’s kitchen and the sun seeping through the window where you see beyond the city of Seoul, all of it worked in harmony to build up my core memories. That year we had already seen my grandfather last summer but in that short time period we haven’t seen him, he has gotten pneumonia and the cancer has spread. I haven’t seen him in this condition; yet. I walk into the apartment that I’ve been waiting months for and there he is in the living room, in a hospital bed.
Suddenly, the smell of the apartment has faded, the plants turned into an ugly and dry yellow, the cabinets don’t reflect their beautiful sparkly blue, and the sun makes everything look gray. A storm of guilt, pain, and sorrow flew through my mind. I knew I had to stay happy though, my grandparents seeing my mournful face wouldn’t help anything.
As Korean grandparents, they love to praise their grandchildren for anything they have done. Even doing little things around the house makes all the difference. Carrying the groceries, folding the clothes, helping plate dinner, somehow kept them proud of me so I did what I could to take the bricks and bricks of weight off their shoulders. Even for my little cousins, they knew what was happening even at their young age so as their older cousin that they looked up to I had to stay happy for them.
Fast forward to now, the hospital visits, our facetime calls, and of course the positivity of me and my family have kept my grandfather going and he’s much healthier now. So, even if I was forcing myself to stay optimistic in this situation, it made a lasting impact on my resilience of my emotions and the people around me. Remember, YOUR attitude could change everything. Someone once told me that happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony – create that harmony, be that harmony.
