I still remember you were in red coats and white pajamas,
with long auburn hair and exquisite eyes. The distance was far, with you in the
West and me in the East. Thank you, Bhutan Times, for their story and a beautiful
photo. I was astounded by Korean studying in Bhutan.
You were studying at Ugyen Academy, Punakha. I read the story more than thrice. And went
through the photo to judge which one is you, Esther Yue Suel Kim, Esther Kim (English), and Ye-Seul Kim (Korean). The difficulties that you faced, especially with
food and lack of recreation facilities, were your grievance. Your likeness of
Bhutanese was cool when you loved Ema
Datshi.
And my curiosity to build friendship with you exploded high
up in the sky. The Korean may be rare as it sounds in Bhutan, but they are always
special—as is every glorious Bhutanese youngster who is a fan of them. I got your name
from the paper, and instantly I wrote you an epistle to be your pal. I sensed how cool it was to write such an epistle to an unknown.
I was totally overwhelmed with your response. The envelope
was decorated with little daffodils and a couple walking through. It was just a
brief introduction. My zeal aroused for when I read, ‘I’ll send you my photo
next time and send me your photo, and please write with your hand in the next reply.’ Your legible handwriting and questions to know my interest, hobbies,
and anything about me were chill to make the chemistry laboratory fume-free.
With a smile on my face, I wrote her reply. I mentioned all my
interests, from playing Chinese checker to writing anything that comes to my
mind.
I received her reply again. I knew her better this time. She
felt sorry for the late reply. She was busy with her monthly test and horrible homework.
It was funny for me to visualize when her friends called her Yeseura, Estee,
and bathroom singer…etc. Her hobbies were to sing, play guitar, hang around
with friends, and visit pyramids of Egypt. Her dream lands are France, Israel, and
Egypt. She wants to see the Red Sea, where God divided it for his loved one Moses to
walk within, and the mountain, where God gave him the 10 commandants. Her dream
was to travel around the world and visit all countries and see different traditions and beautiful and wonderful people.
The message in her letter was inspiring: “I think no one is
bad in this world, and everyone has his or her own beautiful flower in them, but
they can’t find it as it remains in the form of seeds… so did you find that
flower in you?” there were some situations when she landed up with the thoughts
that she is the most useless and miserable person in this world…. But she prays
in those moments and keeps all her burdens and logs under the foot of her god. “He
tells me to close my eyes and open my eyes and make me see the people
around me and I become the happiest person in the world whenever I find the
flowers in me…”. "So I hope you will also find those seeds in you that will bloom
in a later stage so beautifully, so all the best in every step that you take in
your life."
Hope I have found those seeds and see if they are blooming. Thank
you for the wonderful and inspiring message for the stranger, which you may feel weird about!!!
Hope to see you sometimes somewhere, and thus with the journey of
missing you, thy name became my password as esangayther.
