I’ve had many difficult times, but I want to write about my life story of overcoming them, rising again, and running forward with all my effort.
EP1. My Dream of Being a National Athlete
Since I was young, I loved sports so much that I dreamed of becoming an athlete. My dream was to wear the Taegeuk mark on my chest and compete in the Olympics.
I was active as a track and field athlete since elementary school, but my parents were strongly opposed to me becoming an athlete.
Then, with my uncle (a rugby player) persuading and encouraging my parents, I was able to start playing rugby from middle school and dream of becoming a national athlete.
At that time, I was truly happy every day, thinking that I could do what I was good at and loved, and achieve my dream.
However, before graduating from middle school, I got injured and while receiving examinations at the hospital, I learned that my platelet count was very low and was told I needed to go to a university hospital.
After graduating from middle school, I enrolled in a regular high school and temporarily stopped my athletic career to focus on hospital examinations and treatment.
I was told that if my levels returned to normal after a 6-month observation period, I could return as an athlete, but as time passed, I was eventually diagnosed with a rare disease called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.
The doctor diagnosed that it was too dangerous to continue life as an athlete, and so my first dream came to an end.
The sadness of losing my dream and the hospital life were so hard and difficult that I thought about dying. The memories of my first year of high school remain the most difficult period of my life to this day.
Just as I was gradually adapting to hospital treatment, in the winter of my second year of high school, another rare disease called Ulcerative Colitis found me.
This disease tormented me at every opportunity, making daily life difficult, and even until most recently, it pushed me to the edge of a cliff once again.
EP2. A New Beginning and End as an Athletic Trainer
I adapted to the pain and hospital life, spending time with friends to overcome the difficult times, and in my heart I promised myself:
"There will be no more setbacks, and even if I fall, I will get up and move forward"
And I had a new dream. Although I could no longer be an athlete, I dreamed of becoming an athletic trainer who supports athletes.
Although I started studying later than others, I got up once again and did my best, and as time passed, I got into the university I wanted.
After entering university, I studied while working as a trainer, and spent happy times feeling rewarded teaching athlete rehabilitation and weight training.
As graduation approached, the coronavirus pandemic hit.
After receiving the COVID vaccine, my ulcerative colitis suddenly worsened, and although I received hospitalization treatment, it repeatedly worsened and improved, making it impossible for me to continue working as a trainer. While receiving treatment at this time, I had realistic concerns.
Can I continue this profession as a trainer?
Due to the nature of the job, I have to meet people in person, but if I occasionally get hospitalized, it causes problems for the athletes and clients I manage. Even though it’s not as much as when I was an athlete, I judged that constantly maintaining and building my body would be too much for my health condition.
In the end, after much thought, I decided to keep the word 'sports' no longer as a dream but as the happiest memory in my heart.
EP3. The Goal of Becoming a Developer: Another New Challenge
While wrapping up my trainer work, I thought about what I should do in the future. This rare disease will continue to torment me, so what kind of work should I do?
Before embarking on a new challenge, I established two conditions:
- Let me do work I enjoy. Because then I can pour my passion into it.
- I must be able to work regardless of location. Because sometimes my illness might worsen and I may need hospitalization treatment.
While pondering deeply, I looked back at the past to see what I might enjoy. Looking back at childhood memories, besides sports in elementary school, I also liked making and controlling robots in after-school programs, and funny enough, this child who dreamed of being an athlete actually dreamed of being a scientist until 3rd grade.
After much thought, I had a new goal: developer. I really liked playing games, and I also had unfounded confidence that if it was work sitting in front of a computer, I could sit and work longer than anyone.
As always, moving forward on an uncharted path is difficult, but because the joy of learning new things accompanies it, I spent enjoyable time and began a new challenge as a developer.
EP4. First Steps as a Developer
Although it was a career very far from my university major, I started studying anyway. While studying alone, thinking that this would just be digging around aimlessly, I decided to start a bootcamp.
Since I wasn’t a major, I devoted myself like crazy during the bootcamp to catch up to their knowledge. I studied the basics of web backend development and began to get a feel for it by working on projects.
After the bootcamp ended, I looked for teams doing side projects, and luckily there were people with high experience in the project I started, receiving a lot of help and growing a lot during this time.
As time passed, I prepared as a web backend developer and started knocking on the door of employment, and I entered my first company.
At my first company, I also met good mentors and learned many things, and above all, I really liked that I could experience various fields while working as a developer.
EP5. The Biggest Surgery of My Life
While spending time working as a developer at my first company, around 1 year and 7 months later in July 2024, my ulcerative colitis suddenly worsened and I was hospitalized.
Since I had been suffering from this disease for almost 10 years, I casually applied for remote work and started hospitalization treatment. Normally, I would receive medication treatment and be discharged after about 3 days, but this time the medication didn’t work.
It gradually worsened and I began to experience deadly pain, and I couldn’t endure the pain without receiving a narcotic painkiller called morphine, and I couldn’t even sleep.
I tried a new drug that had come out, but it was useless, and clinical trial drugs were refused due to thrombocytopenia. I couldn’t even drink water and went to the bathroom every 5 minutes, pouring out bloody stools.
The doctor said there were no more medications to treat me and the only way was to remove the entire colon.
To make matters worse, surgeries were backed up so I couldn’t have surgery right away, and I finally had surgery almost a month after being hospitalized.
I had to have two surgeries total, and after the first surgery to remove my entire colon, I wore a bag on my stomach for 3 months and returned to work. After 3 months, I had a second surgery to remove the bag from my stomach and connect the small intestine to the anus.
Now I’ve said goodbye to the ulcerative colitis that tormented me so much, but my recovery after surgery was delayed, and I eventually decided to resign and rest.
EP6. Rest and Preparation for a Leap Forward
While having major surgery, I experienced great frustration once again, but fortunately, ulcerative colitis will no longer torment me, so on the other hand, I felt relieved.
After resigning, while recovering my body, I spent time studying things I hadn’t studied before, attending conferences, working on side projects I wanted to try, and preparing for a new leap forward.
Life is unpredictable about what will happen next, but if I don't give up and move forward, when I look back from that end, I think the process I’ve gone through might become an interesting story.