Leaving my hometown and not being able to get my mom's care was a big ordeal at

In 1998, I turned 20 and went to college. From Tongyeong to Busan, it took a two-and-a-half-hour express bus to reach the western terminal. From there, it took another hour by bus to reach the Daeyeon Campus of Pukyong National University. It took four hours from home to school.

Leaving my hometown and not being able to get my mom's care was a big ordeal at the time. As expected, I didn't have the power to control my life. It became a mess. The most enviable thing was going to college in Busan after eating my mom's food. Like them, if I had my room and my mom's food.... There were hundreds of books in my room in Tongyeong, but less than five were brought to Busan. Disconnecting from books was also a big ordeal. My room in Tongyeong was my own world that I built for 20 years, but it was cut off from all assets. Books, music CDs, comic books, newspaper scrap, photo albums, etc. that had been loved by Samoa have moved away.

Come to think of it now, independent life after 20 wasn't bad. Like an adult kangaroo living in a small mother's pocket. There are people who are over 40 years old and still stuck in a 2 square room with a kindergarten graduation picture. Those are people who live in their fourth year of high school and fifth year of high school, not their first year of college or their second year of college. Some are about 30th grade in high school. If I still lived in my mom's house, I wouldn't have grown up properly. My body is growing, but the space is small, so it is bound to be deformed.

The world changed when I took the express bus for 2 hours and 30 minutes from Tongyeong Terminal. Tongyeong was already a boring and boring city at the time. Through the Gimhae Plain, you can see the Nakdong River and a car stops at Sasang Terminal. In 1998, it was a dark and dirty place. The reason why it was dark is that there were many industrial complexes around, and black smoke led to cover the building. The reason why it was dirty was that there were so many people that the garbage wandered around on the floor. Not far from the terminal, there was a clumsy high-rise temple building made by a cult. There were many people who asked, 'Do you know the province?' and various scammers who were aiming for innocent people from the countryside. Homeless. In short, it was a representative slum in Busan.

When I took the bus to Daeyeon-dong after passing through the nail valley, the air became clean. Daeyeon-dong was close to the sea and had no factory at all. The building was new and people dressed neatly in middle class clothes. A university town where the sun sets, a laidback Sunday evening. Standing with a large luggage under the crowd, I felt complete freedom. "Perfect freedom." Back then, I didn't even have a cell phone. Nobody knows who I am. It's my freedom to do anything. If you've never felt that freedom in your life, make sure to feel it….

He smoked a cigarette and emitted smoke. If he was 20 years old or in Tongyeong, he would have to hide in a corner to smoke in fear that an adult he knew would see him smoking. In Daeyeon-dong, there were no adults (such as a college student) or anyone who knew. I can't forget the taste of that cigarette that I smoked while intoxicated with the sunset light.