Lee Ji Won/ Meaningful Place First Draft/ Thursday 1-3 pm

201502643 Lee Ji Won   The air in the study room of Ulsan Foreign Language High school was always quite stuffy. Rather than a relaxed atmosphere, there was a tension in the room, full of 175 senior students who all concentrated on their studies. How could I always endure two hundred minutes every day sitting at a desk for three years? I had feelings of both love and hatred toward the study room. While I was sick to death of studying at that room, it was still the place full of precious high school memories.  Walking along the slope leading to the study room, I could smell food odors of that day's evening menu since our school cafeteria was next to the slope. While walking up, I could see far in distance that the front gate of the study room was crowded with students waiting for it to be opened. The gate was painted in blue and since the doorknob was quite slippery, we often could hear the door slam if someone miss the doorknob. In front of the door, there were always tons of scrap papers and completed workbooks which showed how fierce we were at studying.   We each had our own designated desks and chairs. Since the size of the desk was just a little bit larger than our body and every desk was separated by partitions, it was such an optimized atmosphere to concentrate on studies. Most of the students sit properly on their chairs but there were some students who kept studying while standing, not to be drowsy. The study room was filled with the sound of student's writing sound and sometimes we could hear a recurring beep of the timer which somebody set for the end time of a math test.  I also studied hard. Well, you know in my own way. I used to secretly watch movie or listen to the music after a short 30 minutes studying. Since both of them were not allowed, I put the earphones only in my right ear in order to know if teacher is coming or not by concentrating my left ear to the sound of stilettos on the marble lobby. One of the other thrilling moments was when I secretly ate snacks with my friend who sat right next to me. Both of us loved salty corn-based snacks which was quite hard that we almost should melt it in our mouth not to make eating noises.  When the bell sounded for 20 minutes break time, students ran excitedly outside to use a vending machine. It was like I was in the middle of an earthquake hearing the footsteps of almost five hundred students all together. I loved that short 20 minutes when I put my head down on the desk to sleep for a while, wrapping myself in a fluffy blanket. Although the chair was very stiff, it didn't matter since I was sitting on such a soft sitting cushion. Then my eyelids grew heavy with sleep slowly. A babble of voices stopped all of a sudden and the study room became as silent as death with a sound of bell informing the start of second period. These same routines were repeated every day in our study room. Although I was sometimes tired of these monotonously repetitive routine, it obviously was and is a precious place that shows our passion toward studying and our friendship.