I visited my grandmother this weekend. Her house is located in a very small village, just below Mt. Geum-oh in Chilgok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. Due to its location just below the mountain, my grandmother’s village is hard to reach. Amazingly, it is such a clean area that there is no fine dust and no COVID-19 at all.
  At the beginning of this semester, I thought ‘I don’t care about human relations anymore, so I’ll be able to feel comfortable in isolation,’ but when pushing came to shove, I realized that I couldn’t. In reality, I had a harder first semester than last year. In fact, things got pretty bad, and I began to suffer from panic attacks and sleep disorder. Sometimes, it was hard to breathe and I cried every day. I couldn’t even go out alone because I was scared of having panic attacks. Then, my dad proposed that I visit my grandmother and take time out to heal this weekend. I agreed right off.
  There is no internet service or wi-fi network in my grandmother’s house. The only options I had were watching TV, taking a walk, and working in the fields. I don’t usually watch TV, and I couldn’t work in the fields because it was rainy. Therefore, I just watched drops of rain falling on the eaves. After a while, it stopped raining. At that time, a double rainbow rose just above the wall around the house. It was the first time for me to see an actual, real rainbow, and it was even more amazing that there was a double rainbow. I was taking photos of rainbows, and my dad asked me to go for a walk with him. As soon as we got out of the alley, my dad said “Oh, I can smell acacia as well as kudzu!” I asked my dad “Is that the smell of acacia?” After that, I continued asking “Dad, what’s this tree’s name?” and my dad continued to answer “These are apricot trees, those are mulberry trees, and these are plum trees. Those are bamboos. You know bamboos, right?”
  To be honest, I wasn’t interested in nature and the environment at all. From an early age I learned ‘We must not destroy nature.’, ‘We must protect nature.’ and I even published an article named ‘Eco-friendly Life’ but I wasn’t that interested in nature at all. However, I’m truly interested in the natural environment after this weekend. When I first asked “Dad, what’s this tree’s name?,” it was because I didn’t want to come down to the countryside and talk about depressing things. By the way, it was interesting that my dad kept telling me the names of trees and flowers one by one and told me about his childhood memories. Therefore, I kept asking, “What kind of tree is this? What kind of flower is that?” and I took the photos. For the first time, I smelled acacia and saw baby peach open blue and small. Plus, following the rain the cool breeze refreshed my whole body. I came here every year, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as interested in my grandmother’s village as that day.
  After I came back home, I started going out alone little by little. I could feel a little better when I kept imagining that I’m taking a walk with my dad. I didn’t do anything great in my grandmother’s house, but I could feel better due to experiencing nature with my whole being. I found that the power of nature seemed to be great. Also, I thought my memories of having a walk with my dad and his childhood memories might disappear if the natural environment is destroyed and my grandmother’s village disappears. One night and two days at my grandmother’s house was precious time to think about what nature meant to me.