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November, nearing the end of the second semester of sixth grade.
Today, with the final exam, our elementary school exams have finally come to an end.
And it’s practically graduation.
Nowadays, with modern education trends, the academic schedule has been moved up, so the final exams that would have been taken in December were held in November.
Moreover, the graduation ceremony was also moved up from February or March to the last day of the year, December 31st.

The homeroom Teacher-nim handed out the exam papers and said,

“Okay, turn the exam page over and begin~”

The first period exam was Korean.

As I entered sixth grade, the difficulty of the exam questions definitely increased.
But for me, the sixth-grade exam questions were easier to solve than the previous trivial lower-grade exam questions.

I quickly solved all the questions, then reviewed them carefully again, and spent any remaining time doodling on the back to kill time until the exam ended.
Finally, the Korean language exam time was over.
Teacher-nim said.

“Alright, everyone, put your hands on top of your heads, and have the person at the back of the class collect the papers with the front of the page facing up.”

Break time.
Sujin approached me and asked,

“Dohee, what’s the answer to question number seventeen?”

“That’s number 4.”

“Oh no, I got confused and chose number 3.”

“It’s okay, you can just do well on the next one.”

“Sob, it’s not okay. My mom promised to buy me a bag if I get an average of ninety-five points this time”

“What kind of bag? A school bag?”

“No! Not a school bag, a handbag!”

“Ah.”

These days, I wonder why elementary students are so concerned with appearance and brands at such a young age.
There are even kids who brag about their designer clothes and lavish goods.
Kids at that age are naturally adorable and charming, no matter what they put on.

Like come on, tsk.
Sigh. It’s all because of SNS influencing the kids in a bad way.

Second period time for the math exam
As usual, I received the exam paper, solved it quickly, and even finished reviewing it.

There was still spare time left but nothing to do.
I started doodling on the back again, and when I got tired of doodling, I started daydreaming.

While daydreaming, I focused on the sounds I could hear.
The sound of the heater running attached to the ceiling.
The sound of a magpie chirping outside.
The sound of children scribbling with pencils and pens.

I looked around.

Children solving problems.
The Teacher-nim at the front grading the Korean language exam papers submitted in the previous class.
And the classroom is also small and cozy, tailored to the small bodies of elementary school students.

Somehow, even while living in that scene, gazing at it felt nostalgic.
Today will truly mark the end of the examination in this small classroom.

As I looked around, my eyes met with my Teacher-nim’ eyes.
Teacher-nim looked at me and smiled brightly with her eyes.
Teacher-nim started to draw something with her hands.

A one, zero, zero.

It seems I scored a perfect score on the Korean language exam this time too.
Even though I had always scored a hundred, I felt relieved only after seeing Teacher-nim’s confirmation, as mistakes could happen at any time.

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.
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The next day.
After grading all the exam papers, Teacher-nim compiled the scores, created our report cards and handed them out to the students during the final day of class.

“Starting from the front, come up and get your report card, number one, Suhyun~”

“Number 2, Kang Junwoo”

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.
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“Number 22, Lee Nami, number 23, Lee Dohee.”

I went forward and received my report card with my grades written on it.

Korean, math, social studies, science, and English all got scores of 100 points

Ah.
I completed it flawlessly.

Perfect marks from first grade all the way to sixth grade.
Even though it’s just elementary school exams, I was still thrilled about the results.

Rather I felt even more excited than when I won the grand prize at the piano competition.
After all, the piano competition was just a competition with other elementary school students.
I thought it was natural for me, with the mentality of an adult, to win.

On the other hand, even though the exam questions were at an elementary school level, I thought it was a challenge against myself to see if I got the answers right or wrong.
That’s probably why it felt all the more touching.

Today, I have to stop by home before going to work.

After school, I arrived home, opened the front door, and called out to my Mom.

“Mom!”

Mom answered from the kitchen.

“What’s up? Why did you come home today? Aren’t you going to work?”

I carelessly threw my school bag on the living room floor and laid down on the sofa, giggling continuously.

“Fufufu.”

I couldn’t hide my laughter.
Usually, I would show my report card to my Mom and tease her, but today I wasn’t in the mood for that.

Mom came out of the kitchen, and hugged me as I lay on the sofa, saying,

“Why is my baby so happy? Did she get everything right again?”

I just kept smiling and silently showed my report card I was holding to my Mom.
Mom looked at the report card, smiled, messed up my hair, pinched my cheeks, kissed me, and made a big fuss.

Mom and I laughed for over ten minutes before we finally settled down.

Mom, still smiling, said to me,

“Dohee, tell me whatever you wish for. And Mom will make it come true.”

“It’s okay, what would I even wish for?”

“Don’t say that. My baby has been getting perfect scores throughout elementary school. Mom should at the very least do something about it. Hurry up and tell me.”

Well, a wish.
There’s nothing in particular that I need.

How about we go on a family trip abroad?
After the school trip to Jeju Island last time, my desire to travel has been welling up.

Or maybe I should skip middle school and take the high school equivalency exam?
Isn’t that a good idea?

“Mom, then I will not go to middle school, okay?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I can just take the high school equivalency exam.”

In an instant mom gave me a stern expression, and said to me.

“Anything but that.”

“What’s wrong with that! If you’re going to dismiss it, why even ask for a wish!”

“Wish revoked.”

Huh?

“Mom?”

“Practicing must be hard, right? Mon should get you some expensive herbal medicine to help you stay healthy.”

“But what about the wish?”

“You’re going to be late for your lesson. Hurry up and go to work.”

“But I want to take the high school equivalency exam.”

“Should Mom take you there?”

“Hello?”

“Let’s go. Mom will take you.”

Mom, without even listening to my words, took the car keys and left the house through the front door.

Ah.

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.
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December, already less than two weeks away until graduation.

My homeroom Teacher-nim called me and I went to the Teacher-nim’s office.

“Teacher-nim, I’m here.”

“Oh, Dohee, you’re here?”

“Yes. Why did you call me?”

Teacher-nim picked up the camera from the desk and began taking pictures of me.

“Dohee, we’re going to film a short video for the graduation ceremony, so can you look at the camera and say a few words of congratulations to your friends on their graduation?”

“…Yes.”

“Okay, everyone, congratulations on your graduation.”

“Can you say a bit more? Let’s start from the beginning again.”

What should I say…?

“Everyone, congratulations on your graduation. I hope you all blossom to your fullest potential, filled with possibilities.”

“Wow, Dohee, speaks so well~”

“Thank you. Well then, I’ll be on my way now.”

I said goodbye to Teacher-nim and as I was trying to leave the teacher’s office.

“Ah, wait just a moment, Dohee!”

When I turned around, Teacher-nim took out a piece of paper from the desk and handed it to me.

“What is this?”

The paper I received had ‘Student Representative Speech for Graduation’ written on it.

“Oh, it’s last year’s student representative speech at the graduation ceremony.”

“But why are you giving me this…”

“I was hoping Dohee would give the speech as the student representative on the day of the graduation ceremony.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that usually done by the student council president?”

“The principal said he wants Dohee to do it this time.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, the principal’s reasons are unclear even to me, but perhaps Dohee might understand better.”

“No, I don’t know either, Teacher-nim.”

How would I know?

“I see. Then, let’s assume Dohee will be the one doing it. You need to write the speech by the end of this week and show it to me. You can refer to last year’s speech or write it however you like. I need to print out some handouts now, so I’ll take my leave now!”

Teacher-nim quickly got up from their seat and left the office.

Ah.

That night.

“Sigh… Should I write this or not?”

Should I just write something half-heartedly?
After all, it’s not something I really want to do.
Yeah, I’ll just say thank you to the teacher, thank you to my friends, thank you to the juniors. Something like ‘With every meeting comes a parting.’ or something along those lines.

But as I was writing, I wondered if this was the right approach.
After all, I’m speaking as the representative of the graduates.
Sigh… Yeah, I should do my best. Might as well make it a good memory for the kids.

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December 31st, Graduation Ceremony

The graduation ceremony began.
After the opening ceremony and national anthem, a video played on the stage.
From the start, my face was prominently displayed on the screen.

The version of me on the screen said,

— “Everyone, congratulations on your graduation. I hope you all blossom to your fullest potential, filled with possibilities.” —

Well, I’m not embarrassed by this anymore.
My face, how come it’s so pretty.

After the video with my close-up ended,
The principal’s congratulatory speech follows.
A graduation performance by the current students.
And then the farewell speech by the current students.

And now it was my turn.
Teacher-nim who was the emcee¹ said,

“Following the farewell speech by the current student representative, we’ll hear the farewell speech prepared by the graduate student representative. Lee Dohee, please come up to the stage.”

Whew.
I stepped up onto the stage and grabbed the microphone.
Everyone’s attention was focused on me.

“Hello, I’m Lee Dohee, the representative of the graduating class.”
“First, I’d like to thank everyone for attending this ceremony.”

“It has already been six years since we enrolled in this school.”
“And looking back, those six years felt short.”
“For your reference, I am still only thirteen years old.”

People bursted into small chuckles.

“It might sound funny for someone young like me to say that time has been short, but my friends and I, who were once children, will become adults in six years.”
“Graduating from elementary school feels like a stepping stone to adulthood.”

“Even so, we still don’t know what we should do and are worried about our imminent middle school life.”
“However we all know which direction we need to head towards.”

“When asking about others’ futures, people usually ask the same question: What are your dreams?”
“For us, children filled with possibilities for the future, finding our dream should be our first goal.”
“I hope all my friends find the dreams they truly want to reach towards.”

“In that sense, I’ll conclude with one famous quote from Thomas Carlyle.”
“A person with a clear purpose, will make progress, even on the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress, even on the smoothest road.”

“I would like to thank everyone once again for attending this ceremony, and especially to my parents, I want to say I truly am grateful for you and I love you. Thank you.”

When I finished speaking and stepped off the stage the crowd applauded.
Whether it was a formality or because it was worth applauding, I don’t know, but one thing I do know is this:

My dream is to become an idol.
I want to become an idol and stand on stage.
I want to hear the audience cheering.

1. master of ceremonies(the person with the microphone)