Spirits do not Inherit

We lack independent egos. That's what I thought at 14, cramming for a middle school memorization test. I tried to talk myself into it. I'd memorize this stuff, it would stay in my head for the rest of my life, and someday I'd use it. Still, I couldn't really see why I had to. Then one day, an idea hit me.

• I must isolate and protect my individuality, creativity, and dreams.
• I must get out of the endless orbit of these exams as soon as I can.

Individuality, creativity, and dreams are the three biggest parts of who you are. Defining them took me a while. Of the three, dreams are the glass ceiling you put on yourself. I'm not saying don't dream big. Dreams just carry different weight. Living in a bleak world and caring only about your own happiness and the people around you is already glorious enough. It's such a... bleak world to live in.

Today, let's talk about the first one, individuality. To get somewhere, I need to know where I'm coming from, and a big part of personality is taste, because we all become what we like.

I treated it as a matter of survival. Without individuality, the metaphor of me is as good as dead. I've more or less built myself around who I am and what I'm about. But this is a world where showing substance matters more than just having information. A world where only information matters in a sea of data.

So I wished my personality had been swapped for something tangible, something physical I could actually reach. That's what I thought.

It's so easy to get swept along by what's around you without any resistance. You do it because others do it, you watch it because others watch it! This happens way more often than we notice. Think about it and none of that answers why. To answer why, you have to know who you are.

Sadly, uniqueness is smaller and more fragile than a breeze in the middle of summer. It's hard to pin down too, because it's just a pile of little things. So we have to keep this sentence in the back of our minds for a long time.

Personality, or spirit, doesn't get passed down on its own. You have to keep exploring, recording, and studying until you go, "Oh, I like this!"

At some point I decided to go all in on my personality. When I like something, I'll say it loudly and without any shame. That's why I keep sending you guys K-pop videos for no reason, with all kinds of praise attached. I started doing this on purpose, thinking, "If I keep telling people what I like, maybe I'll figure out what I like..." There's still a long way to go, but I think it's working to some extent. I've heard my concept is pretty solid among you guys. My favorite thing to hear is "This is obviously Sunghyun, hahaha."

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Seoul. Your vast and glorious culture is still just a scribble in the corner of a notebook. It's up to you to figure out how to capture it and grow it.