Today, I would like to speak to you about a beautiful story about potters and the clay they use. Beautiful pottery is displayed in a certain shop. It has not always been beautiful pottery. It is different f rom   the time when it was just a lump of clay. One day when it was just clay, a porcelain excavator appeared and started to extract the clay from the ground. Then, it was moved to a container box and broken to bits.

The clay finally met a master. That is the potter. The potter rolled and patted it over and over. Suddenly, it was placed on a manual potter’s wheel and was spun around and around and around. It felt dizzy. Then it was dried in the shade put in a kiln. The clay had never felt such heat until that time. Finally the door of the kiln opened, the potter put it on a shelf and then brushed and painted it. The fumes were horrible. It cried. But the potter still smiled. Then suddenly the potter put the piece of clay back into the kiln. The clay was suffocating in the kiln. Then, it thought there was not any hope. It was ready to give up. But the door opened and the potter took it out and placed it on the shelf. One hour later he handed the clay a mirror and said, "Look at the way you look." The clay said, "That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful." 

Sometimes, I think we expect that our lives will comfortable without any hardship, suffering, and pain. But like the story above, the place in which you are standing now is a process where you who will evolve, as the clay became a beautiful vessel after undergoing such hardship. Even though your life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance, once you overcome these hardships, you will be with delight and thankfulness?

By Pak Sa-ra, Head Student Editor

#277 Desk Column