[One Thousand Characters a Day] 'Loneliness Class' <4> - Life Is Like Riding the Waves

Editor's NoteKim Min-sik, former MBC PD and author of ＜Loneliness Class＞, describes our lives as surfing. Everyone is simply riding the waves on their own surfboard. This book is Kim PD's personal surfing story of life and a retirement memoir for a new beginning. It contains wisdom on how he rides and enjoys the waves of loneliness, how he finds balance between body and mind, and how he takes a step forward and deepens his life. Word count: 1011.

At the age of fifty, I decided to try a new sport besides walking, cycling, and table tennis. I resolved to learn surfing. Every time I traveled to the beach, I signed up for surfing lessons. In April, I surfed at Jeju Jungmun Beach, in May at Busan Songjeong Beach, and in July at Yangyang in Gangwon Province.

On the first day, when the instructor held and pushed me from behind, I somehow managed to stand up on the board. But from the second day, when I practiced alone, I couldn’t properly stand on the board for several days. Moreover, even in May, the seawater was so cold, and the waves crashed so fiercely. It was very hard to push the surfboard against the waves and move forward. Every time the board flipped and I plunged into the water, I swallowed plenty of salty seawater. I also got cuts on the top of my feet from being scraped by the sand on the bottom, which made me limp for a while whenever I walked.

Learning to surf is really fun. In golf, you compete by reducing your strokes; in running, you compete by records; in soccer, you compete against the opposing team. Surfing has no competition, no records, and no winners or losers. Everyone just rides their own wave and enjoys the moment. Then why do I surf?

Surfing means falling countless times, plunging headfirst, swallowing water, and still getting back up. It’s just like my life, so I can’t give up just because I fell a few times. While learning to surf, I stopped expecting not to fall. Even if I fall, I just get up quickly and push the board out into the middle of the sea with that mindset.

To catch a wave while surfing, you have to speed up before the strong wave hits. You lie on the board and wait, and when you see the wave starting far away with white foam breaking, you paddle with your arms like oars. If you just stay still or don’t gain speed, the wave simply passes under the board.

When the wave comes, you also have to speed up and, at the moment the wave arrives, push your whole body with your arms and quickly stand up to balance your center of gravity. To properly ride the wave of change and move forward, you first have to paddle hard to increase your speed. This is the life lesson surfing teaches.

- Kim Min-sik, ＜Loneliness Class＞, Saenggakjeongwon, 18,000 KRW