Part 1: What should I do? I don't want to go to school today.
Mom's ice cream
Mother's heart
Adult mother
Adult Dad
This is my father
fishing
Watermelons hanging in bunches
dick
Becoming an adult
Lie 1
Nothing happened
Door-to-door evangelism
Enemy

Part 2 My Classroom is Outside School
Ahead of graduation
Why, teacher
Why only me
School by the river
The face of the river
April Fool's Day
My classroom is outside the school
cleaning the bathroom
Cheer up, teacher
Changes in taste
As if nothing happened
airplane
Hong-eo flavor
bubble gum
caffeine

Part 3: The performance evaluation never ends.
Exam Period 1
Exam period 2
test
It's true that I'm alone
Never-ending performance evaluation
Snap
My dad
dry grass
A park where time has stopped
Eighteen Geum-hee's Diary
Midnight martial law
cheering stick
Exactly the same
If there is a god, please answer.

Part 4 It's not too late, so let's go home.
Sanggu Village Tiger Thorn Tree
I'm from Naju
autonomous buses
Robot Teacher
Mute
In my time
Samcheolli Bicycle
spark
Let's go home
Only briefly during election season
In the word grape
Healing Hand
This station is the final destination for this train.

The poet's prose
Every time I climb over the fence

Reading activity sheet

What else will be left behind after graduating from high school?
Do you have to throw something away to become an adult?

Without throwing away the things you cherish
Is there no way to become an adult?
Becoming an adult is a scary thing.

“I wonder if someday I too will be able to reach out to someone in pain and offer warmth.”
A collection of youth poetry by poet Oh Seong-in, comforting the sorrow of May in Gwangju.

The ninth work of the Youth Perspective series during break time, poet Oh Seong-in's "Becoming an Adult is Scary", has been published.
This is the first poetry collection for young adults by poet Oh Seong-in, who published the poetry collections 『Blue-Eyed Witness』 and 『Where Is This Car Going』, and the prose collection 『A Person Who Does Not Exist in the World』.
Poet Oh Seong-in, born in Gwangju and living in Naju, has constantly faced the sorrow of May in Gwangju.
The poet says that there are more Gwangjus he does not understand than those he does, and confesses that as he writes poetry, he gradually comes to understand his father's sorrow.

This new book delicately captures the intergenerational memories surrounding the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and the individual narratives of growth within it, through the eyes of a young narrator.
It honestly confronts the scars of the times, the pain of family, and the fears of growing up, and delicately depicts the face of a generation where scars and hope coexist.
Although the poet did not directly experience the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, he gently portrays a portrait of a generation through the voices of later generations who naturally inherited the traces of its pain.
The wounds and silence of the parental generation, and the anxiety and conflict of youth, contained in his poetry, create a quiet ripple in our hearts.

What we must note here is that Oh Seong-in's poetry does not stop at dwelling on the pain of the past.
The poet looks at the present with a warm gaze, and affectionately looks at the youth who are living faithfully in the present era.
For example, it captures the humor of everyday life by saying, “I later found out that geosigi/was standard language, which was even more shocking” (“Geosigi”), or shows a scene where a plan to skip school is exposed by answering “It’s my father” (“It’s My Father”) to the homeroom teacher’s question, “By the way, who called you?”
It also poses the question, “Is there no way to become an adult without throwing away the things we cherish?” (“Becoming an Adult”), and honestly captures the inner struggles and moments of growth experienced by adolescents.
In this way, the questions posed by the poet's young speakers transcend generations and ultimately become universal questions that everyone can relate to.

The message that Oh Seong-in's poetry collection for young adults conveys to us is not just one person's life, but the growing pains of a human being who cultivated poetry through suffering.
A timeline that connects Gwangju in 1980 to today's youth.
The poet, who returned to Gwangju after many years, reaffirms the meaning of the wall.
He finally comes to understand the pain of his father, who was deeply wounded in the history of May 1980, and realizes that poetry is “a rite of passage that he must go through to become an adult” given to him.
Poet Oh Seong-in uses the language of poetry to address the question, “Where did my father’s sorrow begin?” (“The Poet’s Prose”), and tells a literary journey that soothes both the personal wounds and the pain of the times, in a colorful voice for young readers.
And it makes us reflect on the 'invisible wall' that still exists in our society, and gives young people the courage to live and quiet comfort.

Poet's words

The performance evaluation I received in middle school
It took over twenty years to finish.

The night martial law was declared,

Please don't live like me
I remembered what my father said

Why does sadness repeat itself when it's easy to forget?
In the square, trying not to let tears show
They waved their flags and cheering sticks vigorously.

It's like nothing happened
Stories of the past that survived
October 2025
Poet Oh Seong-in's words

The performance evaluation I received in middle school
It took over twenty years to finish.

The night martial law was declared,

Please don't live like me
I remembered what my father said

Why does sadness repeat itself when it's easy to forget?
In the square, trying not to let tears show
They waved their flags and cheering sticks vigorously.

It's like nothing happened
Stories of the past that survived
October 2025
Oh Seong-in