NMH Magazine : Winter 2003

Mending Lives

What happens to the heart of a young boy who's witnessed war firsthand? Eddie Kim '03 can tell you something about it. Eddie was born in Korea, but his businessman father moved the family to Kuwait soon after. In August 1990, when Eddie was five years old, Iraq invaded Kuwait, five months before the Persian Gulf War broke out. 

"I saw a lot of blood and people dying in the street. The shooting was very random. If you met a really angry, mean soldier, he might kill you," Eddie describes. "When we left our underground hiding place to drive to the Korean Embassy, my parents kept telling us to smile, act friendly, look innocent. I didn't understand the big picture, but I did know we were in danger." 

After the Korean and Iraqi governments made a deal to let Korean citizens leave Kuwait, the Kims drove nonstop for two days through Iraq, Jordan, and Syria to safety. Eddie's job was to keep his father awake whenever he started to fall asleep at the wheel. An air transport had been arranged for the released Koreans, who were taken to Seoul. A few months later the Kim family moved to Turkey, where they've lived since. 

When Eddie was seven, the full effects of his experience began to sink in. "I realized I was really grateful to be alive. I knew the world wasn't always a happy place for kids to grow up in. I had seen reality–I had seen the other side. And as I thought more about it, I knew I wanted to work with people who have hard lives." 

As a sixth grader at an international school, Eddie volunteered to work with blind students and orphans. Soon he was reading books to the blind after school most days and visiting the orphanage every weekend. Thus began the work that would help strengthen Eddie's spirit. His parents, who do volunteer work on behalf of Koreans living in Turkey, fully supported him. As a result of his commitment, Eddie won awards normally pre seniors: the International Baccalaureate Trophy Award for Community Service as well as recognition by the European Council of International Schools. 

When he arrived at NMH in 1998, the first thing Eddie did was visit Director of Outreach Annette Mackin Wadleigh and tell her he wanted to start a blind school project. With Annette's help, he developed a program at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, bringing NMH students and blind students together once a week. They've worked on the Empty Bowls hunger project, celebrated holidays, and played games like blind softball. Eddie says he enjoys hearing about the teenagers' lives, and that he learns a lot by swapping stories with others. 

Some of those stories seem to shoot straight into Eddie's heart. He's become good friends with a girl at Perkins named Kristen, who's a talented singer. When Eddie first complimented her on her voice, she expressed discouragement–she believes her dream to succeed as a singer is doubtful because of her blindness and disfigurement. "I told her that it's about her beautiful voice and what people take from it, not how she looks. I keep telling her, 'You love to sing. Don't give up!'" 

And then there's Cem, a seven-year-old boy from Turkey who became Eddie's Little Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program last year. Cem's home life in Turkey was difficult so he was sent to the States to live with his aunt. Eddie visited Cem's elementary school each week to help him with his class work, his English, and other challenges. Cem came to NMH on Friday evenings for dinner and walks around Perry Pond with Eddie. The two sometimes spoke Turkish, which helped them both miss home a little less. 

Eddie has been deeply involved in community service throughout his years at NMH, volunteering, developing projects, or serving on the outreach board of directors. All in all, he spends about 20 hours a week doing outreach. "It's like going out for a varsity sport, but you're going to a soup kitchen instead of the gym," says Eddie. "I tell people I do varsity outreach." Being at NMH has also sparked an interest in politics, diversity, and international issues, and he pictures himself someday working for the Red Cross or the United Nations. "I'm developing a sense of what I want to be and why I'm here in the world. Not that I think I'm going to change the world, but I'm thinking realistically about what I can do." 

He's come to believe that living well in the world together is all about creating a balance between give and take. It's only been about a dozen years since Eddie's young heart was stunned by the violence of war. But through his desire to mend holes in the hearts of others, his own has grown a hundredfold.