“I envied my friends who knew what they wanted to be. When they would talk about their future goals, I could only respond with ‘oh, really?’ Looking back, I think I haven’t really dreamt of becoming anything since grade school. I don’t really know what would fit my personality. Last year I got a variety certificates so I could at least be prepared for something and then worry about it later. But only being 21 years old and becoming a sophomore in college, it’s kind of sad that I have to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life already.”
“전 ‘뭐가 되고 싶다‘ 라고 생각 하는 친구들이 부러웠어요. 친구들이 장래희망 얘기하면 ‘오, 그래?’ 라고 반응할 뿐이었죠. 돌아보면 전 학창시절 때부터 장래희망이 없었던 것 같아요. 뭘 해야 내 적성에 맞는 건지 잘 모르겠거든요. 그래서 뭐라도 빨리빨리 준비 해 놓고 고민을 하려고 작년에 자격증을 많이 땄어요. 근데 이제 21살, 대학교 2학년이 되는데 벌써 직업을 결정 해야 한다는 게 좀 아쉬워요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“I wish to see this one person before I die, but I have yet to find him. It feels I have seen everyone except for him. I met him 50 years ago when I first came to Seoul and worked any manual labor job that I could find. He followed me around like a younger sibling calling me ‘brother brother’ so we became really close. One day, my parents from the countryside sold a patch of rice paddy and sent me the money so that I could find a place to live. The time was late when I picked up my money from the bank, so I got a room at a motel and my friend stayed with me. But, oh my, when I woke up in the morning, he had already taken off with the money. Do you know how much a patch of land is? It is worth about one hundred million won (ninety thousand US dollars) now. That day I didn’t even have a penny, so I walked from Segeomjeong to Miari hill (over 9km) to find him. I also slept on the street because I didn’t have any money.”
“What are you going to do if you see him?”
“Well, I can’t ask him for the money anymore. It’s been 50 years so what can be done? I can’t beat him up or kill him. I’ll just say ‘you are lovely’.
“Lovely?”
“Yes. You have done what you did to make me into a good and mature person.. You go and have a good life. Now I am tired of hating him, I just simply want to see his face.”“내가 죽기 전에 꼭 만났으면 쓰겄는데, 아직 못 만난 사람이 있어. 다른 사람들은 다 보이는데 그 놈은 안 보이네. 50년 전에, 내가 서울로 올라와서 노동일도 하고 별 거 다해먹었을 때 만난 애야. 나한테 ‘형님형님’하면서 따라다니길래 동생 같이 가깝게 지냈지. 어느날 시골에 계신 부모님이 서울에서 방 얻으라고 논 한 마지기 팔아서 돈을 부쳐줬거든. 돈 찾은 날, 시간이 늦었길래 여관에서 묵었지. 그 동생이랑. 근데, 아이고. 아침에 일어나 보니까 이놈아가 그 돈을 가져가 버렸어. 논 한 마지기면 얼만 줄 알아? 그게 지금 시세로 치면 1억은 가요, 지금. 그날 차비 한푼이 없어서 세검정에서 미아리 고개까지 걸어갔어. 그 놈 찾을라고. 땅바닥에서 잠까지 잤어요. 돈 한 푼이 없어서…”
“만나면 어떻게 하실 거예요?”
“이제 돈도 돌려달라고 못 그러잖어. 50년이 지났는데 어떻게 할거야. 때릴 수도 없고 죽일 수도 없고. 예쁘다고 내가 해줄라고.”
“예쁘다구요?”
“그래. 나를 참 사람 되게 하려고 니가 그랬구나… 너 잘 먹고 잘 살어. 이제 미워하는 것도 지쳐버렸고, 그 사람 얼굴이나 봤으면 좋겠어.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“I started my career as a barista pretty late at age 27, but now I am a member of the national barista team. At first I saw that almost anyone was going for the barista license, so I thought I would also give it a try. That was initially how it started, but as time went on, I was really enjoying it and I felt like this was truly meant for me. I studied computers since I was in high school and worked in the IT field, but honestly, I just did it because it was what I had studied. But with coffee, I thought I could keep at it while enjoying it. Still… it was difficult to quit a career that I had been working in for a while to start something new. I was pretty anxious. During that time, it was my parents who provided me courage. When I brought my thoughts up to my parents after much contemplation, they encouraged me by saying that they could see that I had been forcing myself to do something I disliked while doing IT work, and that they were happy to see me brighten up while learning about coffee.”
“저는 27살이란 늦은 나이에 커피에 발을 들여놨지만 지금은 바리스타 국가대표예요. 사실 처음엔 너나 나나 할 것없이 사람들이 막 바리스타 자격증을 딴다길래 그럼 나도 한번 해봐야지 하고 시작한건데 하다보니 재미있고 이게 내 일이구나 싶더라구요. 제가 원래 고등학교 때부터 컴퓨터를 배워서 쭉 IT일만 했었는데 사실 그 일은 제 전공이라 마지못해 했던 거 거든요. 근데 이건 제가 끝까지 재미있게 할 수 있을 것 같았어요. 그래도… 오랫동안 해오던 일을 접고 새로운 길을 결심하는 건 쉽지 않더라구요. 많이 두려웠거든요. 근데 오히려 그때 부모님이 용기를 주셨어요. 저는 오랜 고민 끝에 부모님께 얘기를 꺼냈는데 부모님은 제가 그동안 하기 싫은 일을 억지로 하고 있는게 보였다면서 커피 배우면서 밝아진게 너무 보기 좋으시다며 응원해 주시더라구요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“I just bought this bike yesterday and took it out to ride it today for the first time. It’s much better than taking the bus. On the bus, I feel like I’m being carried by the bus rather than taking it. One time, on the bus, I thought ‘what am I doing here?’ You know when the bus jerks, you’re also thrown back and forth. Even though I wanted to stand still, I couldn’t even though I wanted to, which made me think about it. On the other hand, biking makes me feel alive, because I’m the one who pushes the pedals. Although I was dying when I was riding my bike, I was so happy. I think the same goes for our lives. We should move on our own.”
“어제 자전거 사서 오늘 처음 타고 나왔어요. 버스 타고 다니는 것 보다 훨씬 좋아요. 버스 타고 다닐 때는 제가 다니는 게 아니라 실려 다닌다는 느낌이 들었거든요. 하루는 버스 타고 가면서 ‘내가 지금 뭐하고 있는 거지?’ 라는 생각이 들었어요. 버스가 흔들리면 몸이 이리저리 흔들리잖아요. 저는 똑바로 서있고 싶은데 내 의지랑 상관없이 흔들리니까 내가 지금 뭐하고 있나 생각이 들었어요. 근데 자전거는 제가 밟아서 움직이니까 살아있는 느낌이 들어요. 자전거 탄다고 힘들어 죽겠는데도 너무 행복하더라고요. 인생도 똑같다고 생각해요. 자기 스스로 움직여야죠.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“Lately, my baby caught a cold. Naturally she doesn’t like wearing clothes, so I guess she undressed herself while she was sleeping. The thing is, my husband saw what happened to her and he got upset with me. Truthfully, it was nothing serious, but since my baby was sleeping in the room, my husband and I fought about it outside, making a lot of noise. After we fought, I got hungry so I ate by myself. Suddenly my husband came out of the room and jokingly said, ‘even though we fought, why are you eating alone? I have a mouth too, don’t I?’ He teased me like that, and just like that we made up. Last time we fought, while we were yelling at each other, out of nowhere my husband looked at me and started laughing. So I asked him why he was laughing, and he said, ‘you look so adorable.’”
“최근에 애기가 감기에 걸렸는데, 원래 잘 때 옷 입는 걸 안 좋아해서 자다가 옷을 벗었나봐요. 근데 그걸 본 남편이 저한테 뭐라고 하더라고요. 사실 별거 아니었는데 애기가 자니까 밖에서 큰 소리를 내면서 싸웠어요. 싸우고 나니까 배가 고파서 저 혼자 밥을 차려 먹는데, 남편이 갑자기 방에서 나와서 장난스럽게 ‘싸워도 왜 너 혼자 먹어. 나는 입도 아니야?’라 그러더라고요. 그렇게 장난을 치다가 자연스럽게 화해를 하게 되었어요. 저번에는 막 소리 지르면서 싸우다가 갑자기 저 보고 남편이 웃는 거예요. 그래서 왜 웃냐고 물어봤더니 ‘그냥 사랑스럽게 생겨서’라고 하더라고요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“I’m in my first year of middle school, and I’m single. Whenever I see a couple, I think they are going to break up soon.”
“Why’s that?”
“I think they are dating more because they are lonely than because they like each other.”“저는 이제 중1이에요. 제가 솔로인데 학교에서 커플인 애들을 보면 곧 깨질 것 같다는 생각을 해요.”
“왜요?”
“좋아서 사귀기보단 외로워서 사귀는 것 같거든요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“(Left) These two were playing around just a little bit ago, and it was too far away to capture a picture of them playing like that, so I just watched them. While I was watching them joke around, I smiled like a mom watching her kids and thought, ‘aww, my cuties.’ While I was staring at them like that suddenly a different thought came to my head, ‘Thank God they’re my friends.’”
“(왼쪽) 아까 얘네들이 서로 장난치고 사진을 찍으면서 노는 모습을 멀리서 바라보는데 그 모습을 보다보니저도 모르게 엄마 미소를 지었어요. ‘훗, 귀여운 것들’ 하면서요. 그렇게 마냥 바라보다가 문득 다른 생각이 들더라고요. ‘아, 얘네들이 내 친구여서 너무 다행이다’ 라고요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
“Why are you drinking wine on the street?”
“We bought this wine to drink at a music festival we are going to right now, but there are a lot of friends waiting for us there; we thought we may not be able to get to this one. So, on our way we just got off the subway and decided to finish it off. We really wanted to drink this wine.”“왜 길거리에서 와인을 마셔요?”
“음악 축제에 가서 마시려고 산 건데, 축제에 가면 친구들이 많아서 아마 이 술을 다 뺐길까봐, 그냥 중간에 내려서 몰래 마시고 있어요. 진짜 이 술을 너무 마시고 싶었거든요.”
(via humans-of-seoul)
by Jim Benton
OMG THE TINY PLEASED EXPRESSION ON THAT LEMON’S FACE
(via nuck-n-futs)
