A "Supporter"

 My Korean name, Jaemin, is  在民 in Chinese characters. It means, "to have people following you," or in other words, a leader. Sounds like a pretty well-matching name with the KMLA goal, to educate leaders, but I have never thought as myself a leader. The word "leader," always made me think of the president, or in smaller societies, class president. I have been class president almost every year (not bragging), and being the "leader" of the class was just too much on my shoulders. When a group of people face seemingly endless darkness, there are some who stand up in front of people and lead them through the darkness with a torch in hand. Some others, stay at the back of the group and make sure nobody falls behind; gently pushing the group on. Leaders, they lead, and in this case, most would agree that the ones in front with the torch are the only ones who should be called leaders. I also agree. No matter how hard someone pushes a group from behind, if there is no torch, the group will not go forwards. However, that does not mean the people in the way back supporting the group is not needed. Although they do not lead, they have a specific, and important, role in the group. That is why I would like to call myself a "supporter" rather than a "leader" as my name means.

 What does it mean to be a supporter in the 21st century? Leaders are demanded everywhere, and even the school I am currently attending is a "leader educating" school. I have never thought of 21st century "supporters", but thinking about this currently, I will like to say my personality does have the characteristics of a supporter in my standards. There are many personalities such as "kind," "funny," and so on. All typical. I believe my personality, except for the typical ones, is that I like to listen closely to other peoples' thoughts. In a time period when "speaking up" is stressed on, I am quite proud and worried about my liking of listening instead of talking. Of course, leaders need to listen to their people, but leaders have a stronger image of making orders. In my opinion, "supporters" are much more the job of listening to the stressed ones and trying to make them catch up with the world around them again.