What Makes Me Come Alive

Ryan Ngo

Mr. Rob Nollan

Block B College Writing

One thing that makes me come alive is my interest in politics of various nations.From a young age, I had paid close attention to politics and histories of different regions and as I now recall my childhood memories of when I started to love politics, I was confronted by my past days as a patriot upholding the Chinese communist regime; an expert who knows everything about the North Korean Kingdom; And nowadays a politics lover whose interest fo world politics is diminished by the academic pressures of boring school subjects. 

When I was a young child, I attended a local primary school, and being part of a local primary school means that I would be constantly exposed to Pro-China propagandas as part of my nationalist educataion. Since grade 3, I had known about most of the Chinese dynasties. And by grade 4, I had been so interested in China’s political history that for everyday of my 2013 summer I made models of the Forbidden city without leaving time to do my summer homework. During grades 4 and 5, I was exposed to the horrors of the Sino-Chinese war for which I learned about the intense atrocities Japanese soldiers did to the armless Chinese civilians half a century ago. This caused great conflict in my values and the beliefs I stand for. As empathizing with my dearly loved Chinese people, I began to hate the nation of Japan and started boycotting Japanese restaurants and burning Japanese flags at my house. I also admired the ‘dear leader’ known as Mao Ze Dong, who selflessly led his army against Japan at a time when the ruling Kuo Ming Tang made no efforts to stop the drakonian Japanese intruders. 

In 2014, I transferred from a local primary school to an international school. My love for Chinese politics diminished when I was exposed to the liberal western values. At some point of fall 2014, my interest in politics came to a halt. This all changed in the summer of 2015 when I read about North Korea’s nuclear program. Since then, I had become obsessed with the hermit kingdom a lot. I still remember for the first quarter of 7th grade, I never did my homework on time because of a ridiculous reason – I was busy watching North Korean documentaries and travel videos without having much incentive to complete my homework- Even at rare moments when I actually tried to do my work, I listened to North Korean propaganda songs while working. As a result of my obsession with North Korea, I earned myself the nickname of ‘Kim Jong Un’ by my peers in 7th grade. Every time a holiday starts, I’d be seen begging on my  knees in front of my parents for an airplane ticket taking me to North Korea in order to learn about their politics. Yet my keen and desperate requests were largely ignored by my parents’ who would in turn every time reply to me “You’d be executed by Kim upon your arrivals in Pyongyang’. I don’t know whether they are serious or joking, but looking back now, I realized my parents are telling me the authoritarian, stalinist nature of the hermit kingdom i was once really obsessed for. 

Now in high school, I don’t have much time to explore world politics due to the extreme pressures of school academics and popularity. However,I would occasionally still look up activists of different political views like Lauren Souther or Paul Joseph Watson in order to explore current events. As I am going to end my secondary school career within 2 years, I am looking to study Politics or law in university and maybe pursue a career in political activism when I grow  up. 

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