Collections of quotes using popular character’s lines from healing cartoons or novels like Winnie the Pooh or Anne of Green Gables have been famous in Korea. The collections suggest more appropriate solutions for people’s worries in daily lives. They contain advice about the common pressures people have about human relationships. As many people feel the burden of relationships, I think the friendly advice has made the collections famous.
  I also have the difficulty of relationships in my life. That’s because I haven’t picked up on social cues, and I have often hurt people due to unconscious insults or actions. As I had to spend much time studying for one year in one classroom, I couldn’t fit in with peers, and I was sometimes alone. This situation put me under a lot of stress. Therefore, I suffered during my school life for many of my younger years, and I felt a need to change myself in some way or another.
  I thought of two options. One was that I tried to hang out with many friends and socialize more. This forced me to try to read other’s moods more precisely, which gave me a lot of stress. Also, most students’ interests were not interesting to me, so conversations with them were too difficult for me. Naturally, I chose another option. That option was keeping people at a distance. It didn’t help my sociability, and sometimes my reputation was affected negatively because of it. However, thanks to some good friends, I finished my school life without much isolation.
  University has been different from high school. In university, after having met a lot of people, I couldn’t see them as often as when I was in high school. If I wanted to relate to others, I had to try to approach them. I didn’t adjust to this environment, so old friends left me, and I didn’t make new ones.
  I had to revert to the previous solution in which I tried to hang out more often with many friends. When meeting them, I tried to read their faces carefully, but I was embarrassed by the small talk and slips of the tongue that I made. Although it was hard, I have not given up yet. That’s because I knew I needed to change myself, and it’s also because I have started to enjoy my friends’ individuality. I realized I could learn something from them. For example, when new people greeted me with a smiling face, I realized the huge impact of smiles and greetings. Also, I have seen seniors who care about my feelings as well as my peers, and I want to emulate their consideration.
  Relationships are often affected by situations. I learned conversation skills which I can enjoy using with people in the clubs of the university, and I learned how to cooperate with co-workers and how to treat elder people when I worked at a part-time job. In particular, I think CBT is a unique environment, a mixture of a club and a job. At first, I had difficulty with how to face this unique setting. However, I have started to enjoy working with people on common objectives and have also been motivated by various people.
  I’m still nervous about meeting new people. Even so, I will meet more people and not avoid the opportunities where I can improve myself through relationships in the future. If there are students who suffer from the same problem as me, I want to advise them. Students shouldn’t be afraid of relationships, and they need to approach people. Then, I think they can learn some conversational skills and feel pleasure when meeting new people.