The Picnic Bag and Bananas

Childhood.

In our country, as a developing nation, everyone had to tighten their belts and work hard. Looking back, my parents’ lives were the same. My mother had to endure grueling work at the pharmacy from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. all day long, and my father, too, spent the entire day in a cramped examination room of barely a few pyeong, with cigarette smoke as his companion, fully occupied with writing and medical practice.

Because I was the youngest child, born late to parents who were constantly busy with dual-income work, during my elementary school years my parents could not really afford even basic interaction with the parents of my peers.

Still, I have had one great lesson in life that has always protected my pride and helped me find modest happiness even in difficult circumstances. It came from my mother’s warm and generous teaching in my childhood.

At that time, because there was absolute poverty and food was scarce, jajangmyeon was the most grateful and cherished gift for children’s birthdays.

In such days, I happened to go through a lottery during the process of entering elementary school and ended up attending what was then considered a prestigious elementary school in Daegu, my hometown.

Because my parents both worked, I was able to go to school in an environment that was not especially poor, but considering that it was a prestigious elementary school, I did not feel that my family was especially well-off compared with my peers’ financial situations.

For elementary school students at the time, picnics and the autumn sports day were the most anticipated school events.

The day before a picnic, the joy and fullness I felt when holding my mother’s hand and going to the market, choosing one snack after another to put in my picnic bag, could not be compared with any feast today.

With an excited heart, I prepared my picnic bag. On the day of the picnic, walking along the road while sweating, finding a spot in a lush grassy field in nature, and then opening our picnic bags with friends and sharing delicious snacks was the highlight of the outing.

However, during my carefree lower-grade elementary school years, I came to realize, after a year or two, that the contents of my picnic bag were always somewhat different from those of many friends my age. At that time, bananas were rare, so the most prized item in a picnic bag was a banana. After my shy lower-grade years had passed, on the day before my 4th-grade autumn picnic, while going to the market with my mother, I gathered my courage and carefully asked, "Mother, why is there always no banana in my picnic bag? My friends always bring one or two bananas..."

Though my mother must have felt pained by the unexpected question from her youngest son, who had probably kept his hurt to himself all this time, she kindly and warmly bought me a bunch of bananas. "I didn’t know Jae-young wanted to eat bananas so badly. I’ll buy you bananas, but I think it would be better to eat them at home rather than put them in your picnic bag. If you take bananas to the picnic bag, how much would the friends who can’t bring them be hurt, just as you were?"

Even as a child, those words from my mother made me feel as if I had the whole world, and from then on, I came to believe that in life, consideration rather than envy can make our lives happier.