Hi everyone. I’m very glad to meet you all like this. There’s probably a lot of people that don’t know me, so first I’ll start by introducing myself. On the social media called Instagram, I share my father’s fight with Louis Gehrig disease and our very ordinary daily lives and pictures and texts that express our thoughts. Im Miss Geung. Actually as I’ve just said I’m someone very skilled at expressing myself through texts and pictures. So exposing my face to so many people like this, and telling my story with my voice is actually an unfamiliar experience for me. So I’m in a very nervous state right now. But that aside the reason for me giving this lecture is, like the announcer said beforehand, for talking about the greatness of ordinariness. That’s why I’m here. So today while sharing with everyone the simple pictures I’ve prepared, I’ll get into what I experienced in my thirtys, the content I started that made my name as a late creator, and as who recorded the a bit special twilight years of my father, the waves of change and adaptation I experienced and during that the small lessons I learned is the story I will tell you today. So I’ll proceed while looking at the image through screen-sharing. Can you all see well? Looking at the picture now you must know but my character stands very majestically. Actually I introduced myself as a late creator but since I was fifteen I’ve been specializing in manga anime. For a long time I’ve lived out of skills related to it. The picture you’re all seeing on the screen right now Is me in 2006 when I was sixteen. In 2006 I entered the art high school’s manga creation club. In my teenage years, with the pride from somehow getting in against the competition, my colleagues that entered with me were all very artistically talented even though they were young and they were friends that very clearly would have a bright future. At that time I also aspired to unfold my hidden potential. Like that one month after the new semester I came to a realization. “Ah, I don’t have an unique and unrivaled talent, “I’m the owner of a passable and ordinary talent.” I had been living confidently so far that I’m the best artist in the neighborhood. But the world I met outside the well was very special. I bacame very jealous of the people around me that had distinct individualities and knew how to finely express them. I got a big complex of me not having that. When I made something the best compliment I would hear was “Moderate, easy on the eyes.” That was all. But I always felt a thirst there. Because I really liked and respected a strong and unrivaled style. So even pushing myself if I tried something unusual the words that followed me were “something is sloppy, tacky, childish, not like you.” Such harsh criticism stuck to me. If you all just look at the picture on the screen right now Actually it’s a bit short and round and a picture that doesn’t leave a strong impression. Like that in my teenage years I realized that I’m not a genius. Since then I’ve had an inferiority complex about unique and unrivaled talent and people with such talent. But in anyway I graduated high school and in college also majored in animation. After graduation I’ve lived out of a related job But as always on anything I tried there was always the word ordinary persistenly stuck to it. That was how I saw the world then. The charm of irreplaceable existence, dynamic and splendid success at an early age, and a career that receives people’s respect, none of those things I craved were allowed to ordinary me. That’s how my twentys went by. While that long time passed, “Ordinariness is a minus to me who makes entertainment, “the work I make cannot move the world.” were thoughts that slowly started to rule my mind. Such a self-torturing mind, like inside the character you’re all seeing now, perceived all aproaching chances of change and growth as signs of danger, new challenges or the value of steadiness, it made me turn away from even trying for the preservation of the status quo. so which choice did I make? That’s right, in my twentys I chose to run away. At first my complex was limited to my desire for personal expression, but as time passed it slowly infiltrated my office and personal life. While making me resent even my environment, “I’m someone who will be someone’s maid of honor then die, “what will I ever do?” was what I asked myself. Everytime the waves of change surged I refused to ride them, and constantly ran away and ran away to land. In the midst of thinking that that would unfold forever, a big event of seeing the end of that land happened. My father that always laid the land for me to run away to, got diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease. From being very healthy and abled-bodied, one morning he was declared disabled and became a disable person. Our ordinary daily lives that sometimes were even loathsome now had become special days that I had to desperately hold to for them to barely continue. Eventually backed on a corner, with nowhere to fall back to, I had to make a choice. I realized I had nowhere else to run to anymore, so I had to admit my ordinariness and ride the waves of the reality I had been turning away from or continuing to reject reality and keep resisting then with resent being eaten by the waves and sink into the ocean struggling with loneliness. And so after worrying for a long time, I eventually in the end of my twentys decided to try riding the waves of change. But after making my decision of riding those rough waves, first I will need a surfing board that matches today’s topic right? In other words, in order to overcome the adversities and hardships of life I need my very own weapon, but my moderate artistic talent was my one only surfing board. So in anyway I decided to stop turning away from reality and start facing it. With my weapon under my arm while running towards the waves, “Is this fine, can I really ride these waves with my poor talent?” was the worry in my mind. But I had decided to turn a new leaf. If I think carefully, the waves I must ride are recording my daily life with my father with the rare uncurable Lou Gehrig’s disease. “This subject that can be unfamiliar to ordinary people, “expressed unusually and convolutedly, “how much could this touch ordinary people’s hearts? “How much could this enter into many people’s hearts?” was the question thrown at me. And finally for the first time I decided to believe in my ordinary talent I had resented for so long. And on the moment I got on the wave, entering it with my fear, something very surprising happened. That surprising thing was in only half a year more than 46,000 followers were liking the story I was telling. I even receiveced an offer from a company wanting to work together and further progress my character and use my story. During that process I naturally started making income from a content making career, the job of creator I had wished for over a decade turned into one more mark on my card. All these miracles happened after I accepted the reality and accepted my ordinary talent as it is and decided to do my best while treasuring it. Actually while I drew manga I received this feedback a lot from the readers. Like that it was calm and easygoing so they could focus more on the story, even though it was clearly a sad and tragic situation the ordinary and calm atmosphere touched people’s hearts more kind of feedback. What if I a year ago, “Ah, I don’t have a talent that can draw people’s attention “whatever I try something ordinary will come out. “Try for what? It would be better to not do it.” was what I would’ve thought? Of course maybe it would’ve not been a problem to my living. However the still unresolved desire for expression, because of me being ordinary not even trying would’ve continued my inferiority complex and repeated a vicious cycle is what I’m now thinking. Actually not just limited to entertainment, most people have at sometime felt a sense of shame about their ordinariness. When the COVID time was approaching, in business or overall society all the flows we expected one morning received changes. Though we already felt pressure before being in a fast-changing society, we encountered a society that forces individual distinctions, so in the pandemic a call to find your own individuality or your own catchphrase was something heard a lot. But in reality as we live our daily lives finding something only ours inside our ordinariness is not so easy. During that time most people thought “Why can’t I be special? “Other people live so impressively with their own presence on fire, “why can’t my results be above average?” and started to worry. Like that they regard what they display as nothing special and so don’t even try is something that happens a lot. “Even if not me someone else will do something similar anyway,” while giving that as a reason. Anyone has the ordinariness I’m talking about however on the contrary the ordinary us are unique in this world. Because everybody exists as a sole unique person in this world. Because of being unique and special then “Can someone replace me and live for me? “Or replace me and feel emotions for me?” is actually impossible. After all just out of everyone being unique in this world actually the ordinariness we have is already above all an impressive distinction we’ve received. This world we must live in was made by a large majority of ordinary people. In other words, the results made by everyone and their actions must be faced by people that are ordinary people. We must ride on top of the wave of life but the surfing board everyone floats with on the sea can look ordinary forever. But that’s right. Like me, everyone’s surfing board too can look common with nothing great about it. However if you look closely, the surfing board we each are carrying was made perfectly for each of us. So I hope you don’t be afraid and believe in the special ordinariness inside you and try to ride the waves surging at you. Sometimes you may stagger and the current may be rough and you may fall and sink and slurp some water. But when everyone’s special ordinariness sticks their head out of the water again, bring themselves on top of the surface, and more splendidly cut across the current to move forward, I’ll be there waiting. Because it’s my own my ordinariness is not ordinary and it’s above all special and shines beautifully, and the things you all make every single one is all like my instagram title, a special great record of history for being ordinary, I hope you remember that. Then now I’ll end my story about my change and adaptation I’m the special creator of ordinary stories Eun-Seon Park. Thank you.