Drive. Ambition. Determination. Assertiveness. They're traits of pride to succeed and achieve, especially in a world where everyone's expected to somehow reach the stars on their own. The Kim family was exceedingly blessed to have children strong in these abilities, to their very cores. Two of them, anyway. You see, you have the eldest daughter with her business degree currently rocking it as a manager at a tourism company in Busan. Then there's the second eldest, most of the way through her medical degree and two children (twin boys) in to a family of her own. And then there's Mihyun. Three daughters, and the youngest's greatest claim to fame might be her three year reign as #1 Young Adult reader at the Jeju Island Public Library, for completing over 100 books over the course of the summer first. Granted, she was a preteen then, but that's pretty exciting stuff right there. Reaching for the stars for sure. She's just yet to land among them.
Even though she was the baby of the family, she's 10 and 7 years younger than her respective siblings (the family surprise) and was never really doted on in excess. Until midway through high school she was highly reserved. Her family was strict with her. "Don't even try to make that skirt any shorter, I don't care if that's the trend!" "No dating until you're married, then again first you actually need to have a first date. (coupled with laughter)" Mihyun fumbled through school, more or less, quietly dying her way through it. In her opinion, what was the point of doing things like school or work when they lived on such a beautiful island? Born and raised on Jeju, she cared more about sitting out on the dark sandy beaches watching the waves crash to shore than how to compute angles in a triangle. And whereas most people still actually tried for the sake of it, to learn that detail about triangles, Mihyun half-assed her way through school as much as she could.
So what made her change and 'try' enough to get her into Yonsei? Good question. The answer is simple - blogging.
Cyworld was fading out by the time Mihyun entered high school, to be replaced by the popular likes of Facebook and Twitter and the like. Mihyun though, avid reader that she was, turned to the blogging options available on naver. It was a hop skip and a jump of writing rambly posts before negative attention found its way to her, and by the power of hate comments she realized she'd better step her academic game up. As simple as it sounds, you know how it goes. Getting into a heated argument over something senseless, only for that topic to come up in school the next day. History caught her first, and then her computer classes when she realized learning something in there would help her make her corner of the internet look nicer. Finally the subjects mattered.
It took a lot of effort, still, to shift from medium-poor grades across the board to ones decent enough to get into a university. And it meant she better be damn certain in the department she joined because once in there might not be funds or patience to give it a second try. So what better topic to major in than the internet?
Digital Communications & Social Media was as close as she could get, but considering her interest in blogging platforms and the developments in microblogging over the years, studies Twitter and Naver and Youtube have all run for comment and watch analytics...Mihyun tripped her way into what's turned into a larger number of statistics classes than she'd ever expected. Alongside work on developing GUI's and the stability and successes of alternative texting platforms like Kakaotalk and Line, it's an active topic with a quick turnover. She's only in her second year at the moment, granted, taking a lot of those core classes you have to knock out of the way first, but it seems to be working out in her favor this far. As for her own social media presence, still going strong.
Her parents were likely the most surprised by her changes over the last two years of highschool. The family moved just outside of Busan at the time too, and they'll often blame 'getting off the island' as what 'brought the ambition out in their daughter'. Her average rise in grades, her general overall performance, heck when her test scores came back they almost questioned if Mihyun had managed to cheat (it wasn't asked of her, but they were surprised). They'd all but lost hope that their youngest daughter was going to turn into a hermit on a coastline somewhere, and suddenly she was showing an interest in school but a social life bloomed out of nowhere. (But social media is killing how kids communicate these days!)
If there's one thing she's learned, for getting along with other people in her late blooming social life, it's that listening can go a long way. To Mihyun, it's like reading a book. Pay attention to the person, listen to their stories. And the best part with people is one day's story ends and something fresh happens tomorrow. From books to blogs to tweets and snapchat or whatever else, getting integrated and invested in the goingson of others' lives and sharing her own is the backbone of growing closer.
As far as getting settled socially in university, she was essentially pushed towards rushing by her older sisters. Both had been members of DPE chapters at their own schools and were eager to carry on the family legacy now that there was a chance. Mihyun took time to grow to the idea, not entirely feeling like she 'fit in' per se, with greek culture in general, and it took her first year to adapt. She's been working at finding her niches though. Between that natural social network, and clubs that seemed interesting (art lately, though she dabbled in book club). She joined the tennis team for the sake of exercise and because it wouldn't require teammates relying on her if she wanted to back down. The biggest constant has been her job at the campus bookstore, back in their textbook section most of the time. It helps with tuition for sure, at least.