Sooyoung Kim, author of, 'What is your dream'?, asked this question around the world and it is what I want to ask university students like me. Even if attending the same school together, some students proudly talk about their dreams while others may not answer at a stick. What makes the difference? It depends on whether you can find your purpose in life. Finding your purpose in life is having a dream and striving towards that purpose and challenging the dream. However, plenty of university students don’t have a clear idea of what they would really like to do. Kim’s book may prove to be a good compass for people who suffer from these problems. Kim is a dream mentor and role model for many Koreans. What is your dream? contains the dreams of 365 people which Kim gathered while traveling for 365 days in 25 countries around the world. The author thought “Everyone has a dream, therefore, it is beautiful. I want to give light to the worried people by collecting people’s sparkling dreams." With this idea, she quit a large company, giving up a $93,000 annual salary and immediately left for her project.
  Sooyoung Kim’s background is unusual. She dropped out of junior high school due to terrible poverty and bullying, and was labeled a so-called, “problem child”. She still has a clear burn on her calf from the exhaust system of a motorbike because she had a long motorcycle gang life after running away from home. However, she later studied very hard to pass the school qualification exam for her dream to be a reporter and finally entered the Department of English at Yonsei University. Now she is on a roll as a career woman. Thus, she is a living witness indicating that you can change your life completely if you have a dream. Now, I will introduce the dreams of people from around the world that she interviewed while undergoing difficulties. All the stories of people from the 25 countries are meaningful, but let's meet just a few people with some impressive stories.

▣ Greece: Changing despair to hope...
  Dioni who runs a charity center called, Fanos 4 Life, says, "To honor the wish of Fanos and help children in a harsh environment is itself all of my life, and the dream of the rest of my life." Her son, Fanos was diagnosed with oral cancer at the age of 22, but he fought against the cancer with a strong will but finally died. She made a charity center in order to commemorate her son who paid the medical fee’s of poor children he met at the hospital while stoutly fighting his own cancer. Her charity has helped with such things as building a kindergarten for the poorest children and a house for the teachers in the Himalayan backwoods. She says, "My son was given a good education and died among his beloved family. I want to help the children who are far from being happy and cannot enjoy basic human rights.” In this way, she sublimed the pain of losing her child into sharing her love with other people. Some people might curse the world and give up their life after experiencing such a terrible pain. However, her dream and current efforts to fulfill her dream will hopefully make them think again.

▣ Thailand : Sing a dream in the secluded world
  Bangkok has a homeless shelter called, The Hub, for children who were abandoned by their parents, ran away from home or left an orphanage. The children were unwilling to open their minds because they thought they were abandoned. So they bluntly answered the author’s questions. The author decided to give them 'understanding' and 'attention' and was able to sympathize with them by talking about her dark past. Then children started to open the door of their tightly closed hearts and to tell their dreams. Mint, who was merely making things up all day, said, “I want to build a happy family. Also, I want to make a shelter like The Hub and raise children with love." Isn’t it the role of adults to break barriers in the minds of children who pretend to be strong, but really are only hiding their weaker and more anxious selves?

▣ Japan : Never too late to achieve dreams.
  Renko is a 74-year-old grandmother who opened a small gallery for exhibiting her photographs of Tokyo. She has a dream of doing the most exciting work that she can imagine at this moment. After learning photography in a school for seniors run by the district office, she has taken hundreds of photos every day for several years and has finally opened her own gallery. She thought it was her last chance to learn something because she was old, so she committed herself to learning and practicing photography. The author was greatly impressed by the fact that Renko pressed the shutter thinking that every moment might be the end of her life. Thus her positive attitude to take on a new challenge regardless of her age, is what I think university students should follow. I hope that young people who give up by saying, “I am too late already”, without even starting, will find great enlightenment in Renko’s attitude.

  Many people in the world live different lives and have a variety of dreams. Although some of them are born in a dictatorial and oppressed country and cannot freely sing the song they want, they still have dreams. On the other hand, some people don’t have a dream from the beginning or they choose reality rather than their dream for some reason. However, it is clear that with your dream, your ordinary days might feel new and different and you can imagine what you will be in the future. I hope this book will help students, who haven’t thought of their dreams, put the flag of their dream in their wasteland. And I would like to ask them, “You live only once, so how about having a dream and trying to realize it?“ “What is your dream?”