In this blog post, I’ll summarize the insights I gained from the study habits I developed, my club activities, and the communication strategies I practiced during my high school years.

Reflections on My Academic Experience

“Strike a balance in your studies” was my guiding principle throughout high school, and it was the aspect I focused on most. I realized that the approach I’d taken in middle school—focusing only on subjects I liked and putting off the ones I disliked—no longer worked, and I also learned that high school exams honestly reflect the level of effort I put in. Therefore, I made creating a well-balanced study plan my top priority.
Specifically, I divided my day into morning, afternoon, and evening and meticulously planned my schedule, placing great importance on sticking to it. In particular, I scheduled the subjects I disliked the most at the start of the day. Since Korean and English were the most stressful subjects for me, I alternated between studying them during the morning hours.
I found sections requiring memorization and reading comprehension—such as non-fiction passages in Korean or English reading comprehension—difficult, so I tended to avoid them. However, I learned from experience that avoiding them would cause my grades to drop, so I dedicated my clear-headed morning hours to the subjects I disliked. On the other hand, I scheduled my favorite subjects—such as physics, chemistry, and math—for the rest of the day to reduce stress and maintain a balance in my studies.
The benefits of this method were clear. First, tackling difficult and unpleasant subjects in the morning improved my concentration and increased my learning efficiency. Additionally, once I had dealt with the tasks I disliked, the burden for the rest of the day was reduced, allowing me to focus on the rest of my studies with peace of mind. Through this process, I experienced firsthand—much like in the “Marshmallow Experiment”—that resisting immediate temptations and exercising patience leads to greater rewards, and by cultivating the habit of perseverance, I developed greater patience.

Writing About Major School Activities and Reflections

“The Joy of Mechanics I Discovered Through the Robotics Club” was a major part of my high school life. Our school holds a club competition in April, and when I saw the cute little robots crawling around there, I was naturally drawn to the robotics club. Filled with excitement—wondering, “Could I make something like that too?”—I joined the club.
Once I actually joined, I realized there were no hidden secrets. It was simply a group of students who loved robots and enjoyed building things, and they had one thing that set them apart from me: “passion.” I was impressed by their attitude—even those with little mechanical knowledge learned step by step through hands-on experimentation—and by how they diligently invested their time every day to achieve their goals.
Those friends never missed a meeting, even on weekends, and sometimes they even worked part-time jobs to buy robot parts, carving out time to invest in their hobby. At the same time, they maintained a balance by staying focused in class and not neglecting their studies. Seeing their consistent efforts made me want to follow their example.
My involvement in the robotics club taught me the “joy of hard work.” Surrounded by passionate people, I was able to channel my own passion and experience the joy of creating something with my own hands. Above all, the experience of bringing an idea from my mind to life through the creative process was incredibly rewarding. That experience instilled in me a sense of interest and confidence in fields related to design and fabrication.
It was also thanks to the robotics club that I realized “through cooperation, the impossible can become possible.” Previously, group projects had been a burden for me. When assigned to a group, I often ended up taking the lead and shouldering all the work myself, and I have many memories of struggling because of classmates who didn’t participate much.
But collaboration within the club was different. With everyone sharing the same goal and passion, we each found our role and fulfilled our responsibilities, and as a result, we were able to share the joy of completing a project together. The sense of accomplishment I felt when our individual abilities came together and the machine actually worked was immense. Through this experience, my perspective on people has also changed. In the past, I used to judge people solely based on whether they were helpful to me, but now I try to acknowledge them for who they are and view them with a positive outlook.

Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Collaboration, and My Reflections

“Installing a Mailbox” was a flagship communication project I implemented as vice student council president. Although it was different in nature from club activities or academics, I was determined to fulfill my campaign promise to increase communication between students and teachers. I believed that while this promise might seem simple, it could actually serve as a small starting point for transforming relationships.
My idea was to install a communication mailbox on campus. I created a small space where students could write to teachers, teachers could write to students, or students could communicate with one another through letters. While setting up a mailbox might seem like a trivial task, I believed it would create meaningful moments through the act of conveying someone’s message on paper.
The response after installation exceeded my expectations. Students who had long wanted to express their gratitude rushed to send letters, and teachers also filled the mailbox by writing down the messages they wanted to share with their students, one by one. I personally delivered these letters every other day; I was so busy walking around the school that I even lost weight, but it was incredibly rewarding.
The insight I gained from this activity was clear: communication is always necessary, and even small acts of communication form the foundation of relationships, making us feel more at ease with one another. I learned that relationships grow stronger when we cherish casual encounters and brief conversations, and I’ve adopted an attitude of not neglecting those small connections in my daily life, striving to maintain my bonds with others.