My parents immigrated here from South Korea. I was born and raised in America, more specifically Pennsylvania. They really wanted me to focus on school, and I understood that would open up many doors for me to have a good future, but it was hard. I eventually started to hate school growing up because my parents pushed so hard for me to do well, and I told myself that I don’t want to go to college.

When I was around 15 years old, I was watching TV and came across a show called America’s Best Dance Crew. It was a hip-hop dance show. I fell in love with it, and, at that moment, I knew that I wanted to pursue dance. I wanted to become a professional hip-hop dancer. I started just practicing every day as much as I could to try to become the best dancer that I could be.

  

When I first got to college, I focused on dance. I participated in battles, was in shows, and rehearsed all the time. Eventually, I moved down here to go to UVU. I only started school here because my parents wanted me to do school.

Everything changed in fall 2019 when I found out my wife was pregnant. It was unexpected, and I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to do because the path of dance can be a good career. You can make money, but it’s also very risky. It’s not something where you can make it for sure.

I thought, “You know what? I should probably take school seriously because that way, I can find some career that can provide for my family. Because with dance, I’m risking my life to become a professional hip-hop dancer, but I don’t want to do the same with my daughter’s life. I want her to have as many opportunities as possible.”

So, I decided I was going to take school seriously. I went through many hurdles trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and I eventually found dentistry.

Once I found that out, I just started going hard at school. I had a really bad start with my GPA, but I met with my pre-dental advisor, Doug Watson. He told me, “You’ve got to raise that GPA.” He pushed me and helped me get to where I am today.

When I was studying for the dental admissions tests, I was taking 14 credits in classes, and I was also taking care of my child. My wife was working, so I had to be home to take care of the child when she worked. I was doing those three things during one semester, and it was rough.

Almost every day, I was on campus from 8 a.m. to midnight. It was really hard, but I managed to do it, and I was able to do well on the dental admissions test. I spent a lot of weekends studying, and my wife had to make a couple of sacrifices where she had to watch the baby and sometimes work at the same time.

Even though it was hard, I’m just glad that that semester is over with. It was a good experience, and I was glad that I was able to also spend some time with my daughter during that rough time because, you know, I wanted to be there with her and play with her, too.

Now I’m a senior and I’m preparing for graduation and dental school. I have four interviews later in the year in the fall, and I’m still waiting for more interviews, but I do have an interview at my top school right now, so I’m excited about that.

For me, UVU has been a place where I can excel academically. I’ve been able to learn a lot. I have so many memories of being in this library, on the fourth floor, from 9 a.m. to midnight, five days a week. I look back on that crazy semester, and it was fun. I liked it. It was really hard studying that amount of time, but I also kind of liked it, as weird as it sounds. I don’t know if that’s a proud moment, but I am also proud of myself for being able to push myself to do that here at UVU.

Current UVU students — take advantage of the resources that UVU has. That’s what I have done. It has helped me a ton to better myself and to be better academically, and this is a great school to pursue what you want to pursue.