An Invitation to be Ourselves from Kim Soo-Hyun

(Kim Soo-Hyun and her book (Image from The Asahi Shimbun)

Don’t get fooled by the cute and simple cover because through I Decided to Live As Me, the author, Kim Soo-Hyun invites us to erase the numbers, be okay with being average, and just live as whatever we want.

This book has been a hot topic within ARMYs when it was seen beside Jungkook during Bon Voyage Season 3­. When Kim was interviewed by a Japanese media, The Asahi Shimbun, she spoke up how she wanted to convey “Do not bound yourself with a standard that was created by someone on their own,'' through the books, referring to how Korean who are in their 20s or 30s are “facing a severe competition while feeling less rewarded for their efforts than their parents’ generation, who enjoyed the benefits of South Korean’s rapid economic growth.” This book is divided into six parts, where Kim does not only give To-Do Lists but also tricks and tips on each topic she tackled in her book.

Kim Soo-Hyun opens the book by saying “When I became an adult, I realized the world is a cold place,” referring to how in a capitalist society, we are strictly divided into those who gave and those who received.

Not even a quarter into the book, Kim mentions how “numbers” have become a standard in society and asked us to erase these numbers from our lives. We unconsciously use numbers as a measurement of almost everything such as the weight of meat, the price of something we want to buy, or the speed of our vehicles. It could also be a nightmare when it comes to our intelligence, our weight, our income, our followers, etc. Who we are is not based on our income, our height or weight, the width of our apartment, the number of social media followers we have, or even our age. The amount of followers someone has on social media doesn’t determine how happy they are with themselves; everything may be fake when it comes to social media.

Further in the book, Kim asks us to not make excuses for ourselves, as not everyone deserves to understand us and our lives. People live with their preferences; they would twist our words into their own narrative and how they want to see us, no matter what we say. No one is perfect; thus, we don’t have to set a standard for ourselves and others.

When we were kids, questions like what we want to be in the future is a common thing we heard. At those times, we tend to answer “I wanna be a doctor!” or “I wanna be a teacher!” or “I wanna be a pilot!” or another profession. Many of us think having a promising job would make us happy because it means economic stability and recognition from others. We need a “fake identity” - as to how Kim mentioned it in the book - even if it means turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to our hearts, blaming our lack of standout personality as the reason of our hearts’ emptiness, thus we have to achieve our dream position to conceal our “flaw.” What we forget or simply don’t know is that putting what others think about us and ignoring what our hearts say would only make us trapped in the world full of comparison and would never satisfy us. Kim emphasizes this statement by saying “we should have put ourselves first and be who we truly are without thinking about others’ opinion about us.”

Kim elaborates that it is completely okay to be average. We tend to not give enough credit to ourselves, especially when the result is average. We forget that what matters is that we do our best in everything and whatever the result might be, as long as it makes us proud, we should pat ourselves on the back. Being average is completely fine and finding our worth amid the “average-ness” is what leads to a continuous and ever-growing mindset of self-love.

In the last part of the book, Kim told us that we’re the ones who are completely aware of our feelings and emotions, so don’t dismiss the pain. Tell ourselves when we’re suffering, be true to our thoughts, and be responsible for our emotions. We will only achieve true healing once we let the pain surface and process it. Kim also told us not to make “being happy” as our life goal, that the purpose of life is life itself. It reminds us of RM’s words about being happy:

What do you think about it? Will you read the book and accept the invitation to be yourself from Kim Soo-Hyun?

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Written By: RAM

Edit By: Ash

Checked By: Euni