My personal narrative-'Still Water Runs Deep'

Almost every people account an event that brings significant impact on their lives. For instance, Helen Keller would have had a mere chance to succeed if it were not for the teaching of Ms. Sullivan, and Korean Scientist Jang, Youngshil would not have been able to invent lots of scientific gadgets if he couldn’t meet Emperor Seajong. As with these people, I also had something that entirely changed the overall attitude toward my life when I was attending middle school. That is, to say, getting to know about hip-hop music through my best friend, Kim, Namkyoung.

It was about 8months from now, when I started to listen to hip-hop. Before, I, like most of my peers, listened to K-Pop, and were fan of idol girls. One day, I had the chance to listen to a song called ‘Airbag’ by Tablo, and for no reason I was seriously addicted to it. How addicted I was? Well, in our class, I had a close friend named NamKyoung, whose dream is to be a rapper, and I asked him to teach me how I can accomplish the rap part in the song. Though I knew I was horrible at it, I sang it in front of him and asked him for revision. Uninterested, what he said was just ‘try harder.’ Regardless of my dismay, from then on I grew significant interest on hip-hop music. As time passed by, I became obsessed with hip-hop, because of exciting rhythms, and mostly because of the genuine lyrics without affectations. Furthermore, I started to admire all the rappers, as I was amused by the fact that they can produce rap music. Such passion motivated me to compose my own song and though I knew I wasn’t skilled, I felt as if I am a musician when composing a song. Feeling somewhat proud of myself, I boasted around Namkyoung though I knew my work wasn’t good. Then came the astonishing moment: after taking a glance look at it, he tore it off; he told me it is a crap. I was shocked because I never expected my close friend would do such a thing. I felt angry and humiliated at that moment, because it felt like he was belittling the effort I put on and time I spent. However, as time passed by, the anger settled down, and I thought what was wrong with my behavior. Then, I reached the conclusion that maybe I was just boasting around with hip-hop, and acted as if I was a cool dude. Then I thought that I need to be more modest, and instead focus on enhancing my ability. With this, when the rest of our family were asleep, I wrote and fixed my lyrics and practiced rap. After several months, I went to Namkyoung again. We hung out even after he tore my paper, but we never talked about hip-hop. This time though, I talked about hip-hop: instead of boasting around, I asked him for revision. He was astonished after realizing that my skills improved, and in contrast to what happened before, he encouraged me. After this moment, I still put lots of effort in rap, but unlike the past, I try to be modest as possible.

 There is a saying ‘Still water runs deep.’ This means that thoughtful and skilled people remain quiet and modest. After Namkyoung tore my lyrics, and as I became more modest about rap, I could feel this sentence by heart. This is because by keeping such attitude, there are less chance of boasting around, and having exaggerated skills. Instead, one can focus on improving their ability. This impacted me to keep modest attitude toward other parts that I excel, and focus on my work rather than focusing on what other people think about me, thanks to my best friend, Namkyoung.

Posted in: English