Essence object "Briquet"

Choosing one to three "essence objects", aim to write three paragraphs exploring 5'Ws (who what when where why how) the object came to matter to you and provide its "origin story." Paint a picture of this object. Consider "personification" if it works for you (writing a letter to an object as if it were a person). Consider "you" narrative for the object or just yourself as the narrator.

Try to do new things in new paragraphs. Have fun. Don't think of this as a "college essay" and don't think too deeply about the College Essay Guy's "values exercise." But do try to get in a "flow" and avoid overthinking.  

It was very common to use coal briquettes in East Asia including Korea for cooking and heating indoor places from the 1950s to the 1970s. This is called 'yeontan' in Korean, and it rose in popularity following the Korean War. However, fewer and fewer people use yeontan since the 2000s due to modernized heating systems available.  But extremely poor people who cannot afford the modern style heating still rely on yeontan for to withstand the cold of winter. For me, yeontan was one of the weirdest objects shown in the animation "검정고무신", which portrays my grandmother and mother generations and I saw it in some restaurants for grilling meat and fish, no more, no less. 

My realization of briquette, just changed last week when I just came back from my social service activity in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Wonju. As a social service activity of my club, MUNESCO, our club members volunteered to deliver coal briquettes to houses which were located on top of a small hill, so delivery trucks can't reach. We carried the coal briquettes on a carrier which looked like a wooden backpack. Each coal briquette weighs 3.6kg, and we all carried 400 briquettes for an hour and a half. Everyone carried 4 briquettes or more at once. Just carrying them was tiring and hard to do, but the ways to the houses were so steep and narrow. I could not even imagine how old people always take that path home. On one occasion, an old lady who was pulling a cart to her home asked me for help since she was not able to lift the cart up the stairs. 

I don't know what briquette would mean to you. What do you think about my story of briquette? You would not expect their living conditions and behaviors. You couldn't imagine why they had to live in such a place rather than a normal apartment. You may think it is too general, and I am a hypocrite, but I am sure that most of the volunteers on that day had the same feeling like I did. For the neighbors living there, briquette is not merely a means to a heating material. It is a warmth between humans and humans, it is a warm momentary attention from the world, which brings warmth to their home. Briquette also brought warmth to my heart, and it reminded me of what kind of person I should be, how much gloomy sides are in Korea , and especially the meaning of my life.