A Small Apartment Full of Life - Essay Example

1024001 Sixth draft Essay 5: A Small Apartment Full of Life One place that holds significant memories in my heart is a small two-bedroom apartment, which I lived in while I was in eighth grade. We shared the small apartment with my family, whereby my mother and father used the master bedroom, my sister used one room on her own while we shared the other bedroom with my brother. Even the bathroom had such a limited space that made it impossible for two people to fit in. The old sofa set from the previous house we lived could not fit in the living room, so we used only part of it that took much of the space. One side of kitchen table was attached to a kitchen wall, which had three chairs. We lived in this small apartment for three years, and it was considerably the gloomiest time of my life. Although this place was physically uncomfortable to live in, it helped me understand a meaningful value of life. While we were living in the small apartment, I realized that physical possessions make our life convenient and comfortable, but sometimes they hinder us from future planning. Before we could move to the small apartment, we lived in a decent-sized three-bedroom house with a beautiful garden that had trees and flowers. We could invite people to our home to brag. We had a spacious bathroom that was big enough to accommodate a bathtub and a laundry machine. While we lived in the big house, I could not undertake house chores, but sometimes when I had confrontations with my father, he would ask me to seek out unwanted plants in the garden as a punishment. Besides living in a big house, I wore quality clothes and shoes which I asked my parents to buy for me. I lived as if these expensive materials are all about life, and they presented me as a valuable person. I had never taken a chance to thank my parents for what they had done for me. Instead, I took it all for granted. I felt confident and proud of having material objects, but the confidence and the material wealth all seemed to deteriorate when the material possessions ended. The shift from a big house to a small apartment was caused by failure of my father’s business. After working for 15 years for a small appliance company, my father decided to start his own business. He opted to start the factory using inheritance money from his mother to produce organic fruit juice. I remember one day he brought some pear juice in a pouch, and asked us to taste it. The juice contained 100% organic fruit juice that was healthy for human consumption. However, the taste of the juice was not that attractive to many of its consumers. Being a father of three children, my father had a noble idea of providing healthy organic fruit juice, which unfortunately was not successful. About a year later, after an unsuccessful attempt, he liquidated and sold the business, and started searching for a job. This made us shift to the small two-bedroom apartment. At that time, I knew very little about my parents’ financial struggle. When we moved to the new apartment, I came to understand why my father searched for a new job, and stopped doing his own business. One day as I stood at the front door, and looked around the apartment I realized that room doors, the bathroom, and the kitchen were not far from the entrance door. I was irritated and mad at my parents for moving to a small apartment. During dinnertime, my father was frequently absent because of long working hours. I frequently complained about food, but my mother did not answer. At that time, my mother was busy serving fish to my brother and younger sister and barely had fish for her own. One week before Korean Thanksgiving Day, my mother bought me a jacket, which looked old fashioned and cheap. I replied by telling her that I could not wear the hideous and ugly jacket because my friends would tease me. My mother replied by urging me to wear it that year since the weather was getting cold each day and I was at risk of getting a cold. Moreover, she promised to buy me a better jacket the following year. At school, my friends did not comment about the jacket, but I felt so reprehensible, and intimidated. After we shifted to the small apartment, I stopped bringing in my friends to the small apartment. One day a friend of mine requested to visit my new apartment which I declined by finding an excuse since she was from a rich family. Moreover, her father was a rich and successful businessperson. When I arrived at their big house, I was fascinated by how big and luxurious it looked. The house contained expensive furniture with huge Italy leather sofa set in the living room. In addition, there was a long dining table and extra chairs in the kitchen. While many people usually place a piano in their living room to show off, my new friend had one in her room, which shows that she was never fancied pianos. Besides, she had many shoes, which she offered me to take home. My new friend informed me that her mother went to play golf frequently, and her father rarely came home since he was always busy. However, she did not know exactly what her father did because they barely talked. In addition, my new friend told me that in most occasions, she sat at the end of the long dining table, and took dinner alone. The housekeeper prepared snacks and meals for her, and just simple words were exchanged between them. Something missing in the house was missing. The house was the most luxurious place I had ever seen, but something was missing in that house. That day when I came back home, I felt the apartment was smaller than ever, but the small nature of the place did not bother compared to before. Suddenly I was overwhelmed by feeling of warmness and care. As I sat in my room, I saw my mother who rushed home after work to make dinner for my family members and me. She went directly to the hand basin, and immediately started washing dishes. I also noticed that her legs were very swollen, and her shoulder seemed injured. At that time, I began feeling compassionate but I could not explain. I informed my mother that I was not hungry, and wanted to go to sleep. My mother insisted that I should have dinner first before going to bed, but I refused. I was in bed, but I could not sleep because something was bothering. The next day as I opened the bedroom door to go to the bathroom, I saw my father in a squatting position engaging in an activity in front of the door. I noticed he was cleaning my shoes with his bare hands from the mud due to the rain from the previous day. This made the rejuvenated the compassionate feeling all over again. I silently closed the bedroom door, and went back to bed. I finally realized what the feeling was. What I had realized is that my father wanted to make more money to support his family, so that we could not suffer. He worked hard even though he was unavoidably lucky. My mother wanted to help my father financially as much as she could, so she started working right after we moved to the small apartment. Even at this difficult time, my parents never abandoned their children. They did this in order to keep us happy. They did this every day, but I did not feel or see it because my eyes were preoccupied with objects. I was materialistic. I wanted to have more expensive shoes or clothes. My love for material things hindered me from seeing the love and care from my parents. After moving to this small apartment, without materials I could see very subtle move of my parents’ and their care. This also made me change my hobbies from shopping to taking care for the family. Moreover, I changed from the usual sitting down to helping my family. In addition, instead of complaining about everything as I used, I appreciated my parents for everything much than before. This apartment helped me discover truly important value in life. Since I found the true value of life, my perception towards life had been changed. I started to go home early from school, washed dishes, and vacuumed the apartment. When I looked at my mother’s smiling face after she saw the cleaned apartment, I felt even more motivated. At the dinner table, we sat shoulder to shoulder, and our arms touched each other because of the small size of the table. We could easily transfer the good parts of food to each other’s plate. Even though the apartment lacked furniture, it was full of warmness and coziness. I saw more of my parents love and I developed more respect for them. In conclusion, I would like to note that, the most significant place in my life was living in the small apartment. This is where I developed and realized the power of love. It was at this place where I realized that material things comes and goes easily. I also realized that materials make feel empty, but caring makes feel full. Had I not lived in the small apartment, I would never have realized the meaningful values in life. On Korean Thanksgiving Day, all family members attend the ceremony, and my brother claims that he sometimes goes to the place where we lived in the small apartment. He recalls the memories and the true meaning of life every time he parks his car in front of it. Read More