culture

Soon I will graduate from the university.

What I think of first while recollecting the memories of the precious six years at the university is the performance given two years ago to mark the 65th founding anniversary of the university.

I went on stage with my writing titled “My fortune”.

The writing was about me, and the stories in it reflected the past and present of mine.

My father died when I was four years old and my mother did when I was five.

I was too young to clearly remember their faces.

I spent my childhood at the Wonsan Orphanage, Wonsan Primary School for Orphans and Wonsan Middle School for Orphans but I never felt the sorrow of an orphan.

Under the care of the state I learned and played to my heart’s content while receiving new clothes, all kinds of daily necessities and school things every year according to seasons.

In June 2016 when I was 13 years old, I came to Pyongyang as one of delegates of the Korean Children’s Union to the celebrations of the 70th founding anniversary of the KCU and had a photo taken with the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un.

After graduating from Wonsan Middle School for Orphans, I enrolled at Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry as I wished.

In my early days at the university, I lived with my fellow students at the dormitory. Officials of the university, lecturers of the faculty and classmates showed meticulous care for me lest I should feel any inconvenience in life as I came from the middle school for orphans.

Still, my lecturer in charge took me to her house lest I should crave kindred affection.

Thus, I came to have my “father”, “mother” and “younger brother” and my room. The room had originally belonged to the “younger brother”.

The “mother” always thought of me first. When she bought new clothes at a shop, she asked the little son “Shall we buy your sister’s first?” and when we had delicious foods on the table, she said to him, “Let your sister taste it first”.

The neighbours visited “our family” first when they had special dishes, saying, “You must be pleased to have a daughter.”

People usually say that it is the greatest fortune to meet a good man.

Since I lost my parents, I have met so many good people, who became my “father,” “mother,” “younger brother” and “uncle” and friends. With the help of those kind people, I have grown up step by step.

It was not because I was lucky.

How could I have enjoyed such a fortune if it were not for our society full of virtues and affection, our socialist system under which all the people form a large harmonious family?

That is why I said on the stage:

“I will devote my all to this wonderful country, this good system. It is also a great fortune of mine that I can do something for my country where there live all those people whom I cannot and should not forget.”

I still cannot forget the applause filling the venue and the images of the people wiping their tears.

My graduation from the university will mark the beginning of my repaying the state.