I took my family to North Conway, N.H. on a vacation when my daughter was about four and my son was two years old . The weather had been beautiful with clear blue sky throughout the vacation. On the 2nd day we stayed, the town held a harvest fair on a parking lot of a ski resort with collection of art works from the local artists. There were many tables laid out with all sorts of artifacts on top; jewelries and various arts and crafts were put out for sale. Seeing all the interesting stuff, my daughter, who was then four years old - enthralled by all the glittering and fancy stuff - was walking around browsing items along side with her Mom. My daughter's enjoyment of seeing the art works was clearly palpable on her face with excitement and joyful expressions on her face, and a glimpse of it was caught by a local journalist who happened to be there looking to capture moments of the festivity. As my daughter was touching a necklace hung from a jewelry-stand, the woman took photo shots of her at the moment. After taking the photo, the woman walked over and told me that she was a journalist for the local newspaper and complimented how cute my daughter was, and would very much like to publish my daughter's photo in the upcoming newspaper for the week asking for the permission to publish it. For the response, I said gladly that it's fine. The journalist then told me that she could send the newspaper mailed to me.
After several weeks later, a letter was arrived from the journalist, containing a small note saying how pretty and cute my daughter was and a cut-out from the newspaper with my daughter's picture which showed her with her tiny hand reaching out to a necklace with a star on a newlry-stand. The title of the photo was : Reaching for a star.
The letter brought lots of joy to my family; on the day the letter was received, we talked about the trip to the town over our dinner. My daughter was very happy to see that her picture came out on a newspaper for the first time ever in her life. Seeing my daughter in gleeful mood, my son sitting next
to her became jealous and started asking me when his photo would come on a newspaper like his sister. On which, I told him that moments will come soon or later without advanced notice.
A moment that would make my son's picture come out on a newspaper came five years later, one day, when a Korean women's field hockey team came to the city where I live, for a match with a team from a European country. I went to watch the game taking my family. We cheered sitting on the first row by the walk way. After the game was over, a woman, holding a camera, appeared to be in 30s approached me and introduced herself to me that she works for a Korean newspaper for the Korean community in the city and asked for an interview. On which, I gladly said "Yes," to have my son's wish to be on a newspaper come true. The journalist took several photos of my family and then took her notebook out and started firing off her questions as she was writing down our responses on the notebook. The journalist told me that the photos will appear in the upcoming weekly newspaper.
On the following weekday when the newspaper came out, I went to the local grocery shop to pick up the newspaper. After picking up the newspaper, I looked immediately at the sporting section in much anticipation that my family's photo that she had taken would be seen - especially my son's picture. Contrary to my anticipation, the newspaper had no pictures of my family; the newspaper had pictures
of the team alongside with other spectators, but it entirely omitted presence of my family there altogether. I am not going to speculate why my family's photo was missing. The journalist lied to me!!
When my son asked me what happened to the photos that the woman took, I just snbbed it off lying to him that I haven't had chance to pick up the newspaper yet, hoping that my son would never ask me the question again; my son would have felt that how negligent of his father was over his sphere.
My son's wish to be on a newspaper came into a reality without an advanced notice, just like what I had told him at the dinner table, five years later, when a town's newspaper journalist for the town where he lives captured moments of my son and several other students walking into a high school building happily on their first day in high school after summer vacation. Having just graduated from the Middle School earlier June of the year, the town newspaper depicted the boys in smile with title: Happy Freshman High School Students heading into classrooms.
