Dister

Elly was a curious eight-year-old Korean girl, one of the brightest in my Kindergarten class. (Remember that these students are exceptionally bright. I think gifted and talented is the proper term, but I like to refer to my students as baby geniuses.) She was reading a storybook with one of her classmates, another extremely bright little boy whom we call Daniel. Daniel loves stag beetles and he once told me that some day he wants to be an entomologist. He actually said the word "entomologist," and I knew this was 'a scientist who studies insects' because in my spare time I was studying vocabulary words in preparation for a graduate school entrance exam. Elly and Daniel were reading a storybook. I can't remember the title, but that doesn't matter.

Pigtails dangled from either sides of her head as she confidently raised her hand to ask me, "Teacher, what is a dister?"

"Dister? That's not a word. Show me the story," I replied. I was convinced she had to be pronouncing the word incorrectly, which is unusual for Elly because she reads at a fifth grader's level. Last week she brought in the new Harry Potter book for show and tell when she summarized the plot to her classmates.

Instead of bringing the storybook to me, Elly spelled "dister."

"It says, D, R, period."

Doctor. Let's not forget that Dr. and Mr. are rhyming words.

What would you do?

Who are you? You're an English teacher living in Seoul, Korea. In mornings you teach extremely intelligent seven-year-olds meanings of words like "imply" and "consider." They understand because they spend their entire day studying. They also bring you presents such as Puma socks, vitamin C, Spam, and Bvlgari perfume, so naturally you smell amazing and you're healthy. By night you ride a spin bike under disco lights, trying to wave your head to Kpop. The wave is difficult to describe. I'd like to show you, but I can't do it. Imagine moving your head in a half circle to the left, and then to the right. Oh, but you have to make it look natural. So your shoulder should move a bit too. You're trying to wave your head because you're training for a competition. You'll be dancing in sync with a group of 8 Korean women while you all ride bikes. You'll be ready. There's still two months of practice left.

The Situation: You want to go back to school and you've applied to a variety of graduate programs to pursue your dream job. You check your email twice an hour, waiting for something. There are messages from graduate schools across the States notifying you of your admission status. Interviews are to be had at two schools. Another school is pressuring your to notify them by next week if you will be attending their program. Mixed in the pile are egreetings and love notes from your Indian boyfriend. He's tall, dark, handsome, and charismatic. He calls you three times a day, and he's already asked you to marry him. He wants you to move to India so he can buy a house on the beach for the two of you to live there forever.

The Problem: You don't know whether to choose your career, or love.

I've always considered myself highly capable of making a decision. Do I want to drink tea or coffee? Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon. Do I want to purchase Identity Theft Protection for my Discover card? I just lost my card. Yes, I would. Would you like to marry your very handsome and charismatic Indian boyfriend or attend graduate school and pursue your career..... Pause.