I think the hardest drill in the military is a march. When walking endlessly with full military gear, feelings cannot be expressed by words. A university student, Kim Taewan, took a long march through Korea, similar to a march in the military.

Q. Why did you take a long march?

A. I was thinking about what to do during the vacation. At first, I was going to make a long march hosted by CWNU but I couldn’t. Meanwhile, I heard about a long march sponsored by Bacchus and YGK. I didn’t apply for the Bacchus cross-country due to its high competition. Instead, I signed up for the one by YGK because anyone could join by just paying an entry fee. Other reasons were that I wanted to collect my scattered mind as best I could after the semester, and test my fitness.

Q. How did you prepare for it?

A. I didn’t know how to prepare for a long march, but a senior from my department had experienced one before, and he gave me lots of advice. That was a great help to me.

Q. Could you talk about tour routes?

A. Tour routes were from Mokpo, Jeonnam through Chungnam to Paju, Gyunggido. The distance was approximately 600km. It took twenty-one days and twenty nights from July 11-31.

Q. What was the scariest moment?

A. The Busan and Mokpo tours consisted of three groups of people There were 6 leaders, 20 staff members, and 100 participants. Leaders and staff members were responsible for taking participants the right way. However, the staff of the Busan route had absconded from the camp, leaving the crew to cross the country themselves. The Busan people then joined our Mokpo group but there were many conflicts between the two groups because most people were sensitive. I definitely thought that being mentally tough was more difficult than being physically tough.

Q. What is the biggest thing you gained?

A. I made personal connections, and I was grateful to my parents for giving me a healthy body. Because people gathered from all over the country, I could establish a network on a nationwide scale. Another thing I felt was that Seoulites live their life fiercely. They were already managing money by themselves, and saved money while being students. These facts gave me an inferiority complex.

Seong Jaeho  -

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