A Sudden Message from Overseas

About a year ago, I met J (the orphan child's initial) at an orphanage in Philippines.

Just last week, J facebook messaged me. It was so sudden and out of the blue. I don't know how he found me, but I was so glad we were re-establishing contact. But many things changed for J over a year. For one, he was transferred to another orphanage, and he also started working in aluminum & glass cutting industry.

J just turned seventeen this January. He asked me whether there was aluminum & glass cutting industry in Korea and whether I could help him to move to Korea in the future. In all honesty, I was stunned. To J, injuries from sharp glass were common and often left untreated. I didn't know what to say. I could only wince at the thought of a glass cutting through J's skin and his blood dripping on the floor.

I wonder what went through J's mind when I told him that I was heading towards college this September. I don't think he finished his high school education. Yet he knows more about the world at the bottom of the ladder than I do.

Maybe I should spend the next nine months at the bottom of the ladder as well. I just turned in my application for an internship position at the Korean National Assembly, but perhaps a ground-level job would give me deeper insights on the human experience and the society.