Editor's Essay

A couple of days ago, I received a letter in Kakaotalk (a Korean social network app like "what’s app", "and messenger"). It was the long message I have ever gotten so far. I do not know why as soon as I started reading the letter; I felt so excited as if I received a letter from my member of my family and a close friend. The letter was so emotional that I could not help sharing it with our customers, along with our personnel at the clinic. I am a sentimental person, and I always get emotional when I see, read or hear something that strikes the chords of my heart, and therefore most of the time, during those situations I forget my presence in the reality. I guess this is enough for the prologue, and now you can grab some tea or coffee because I am going to start. I am going to write in the way that our customers sent us. I hope you will enjoy such a read.

The doctor Kim was my first plastic surgeon. I remember being teased by my closest friend about my appearance. Since then, I have developed a physical complex that severely tarnished my self-esteem and self-confidence. Whenever I was going out, I used to pretend to be a happy, and bright person as if I was satisfied with everything in my life. However, the time when I step into the home, I became angry and always tried to vent my anger on my family members. After some time, I happened to work part-time after school to be exact, 2nd year at high school. With my salary (400.000 won around 400 US dollars) earned from my part-time job, I went to the She’s Plastic Surgery Clinic to have a consultation with Dr. Kim.

During holidays, most of my classmates were having double-eyelid surgery which made me also want to do the surgery. Even if I was full of desire to have surgery, I was hesitant because our family situation was not that good at that time. And I had been thinking of giving all my part-time job salary to my family as a support. After long hesitation and thinking, I made up my mind to do the surgery. I thought that my salary from a part-time job would be sufficient to do the surgery, but, what I heard after the consultation was that the surgery cost 500.000 won (about 500 US dollars), not 400.000. The moment when I knew this, I could not help myself but burst into the tears. I felt devastated. That very moment, Dr. Kim understood that 100.000 won was big money to find for a teenager and said that he could perform the surgery for 400.000 won.

Time passed. After becoming an adult, I did several other surgeries with Dr.Kim. As a plastic surgeon, Dr.Kim prefers and always pursues naturalness and harmony. He is never tired of repeating these two things to customers during the consultation. Therefore, I think this is why he is loved and respected by all his customers for so many years. In my case as well, I do not look like celebrities or stars, but I am more than satisfied with the naturalness that Dr.Kim presented to me. It is one of the main reasons that helped me find myself, accept myself, and become confident not only from the outside but also from the inside, heart.

Every time, when we discuss plastic surgery with my friends, I am always proud and glad to call Dr.Kim my “second father”. Because he gave me a second life which I will never forget. In conclusion, I would like to add one more important thing about Dr. Kim. I look up to him not only for his exceptional professional skills as a plastic surgeon (he is the master of his work: there is no doubt about that) but, above all, for his warm, pure and honest heart as a person. Thank you so much, Dr. Kim. Best wishes, 자연미 (Cha Yeon Mi)

Could you hold back your tears? Well, I could not. I cried twice: first when I was reading this letter, and now while writing about that. I am deeply honored and blessed to work with such an incredible person Dr.Kim. I cannot also mention how our customers and their honest reviews no matter how big or small, short, or long the review is, motivate us to do our best even harder. On an emotional and positive note, I would like to send this letter by wishing you all the best. Thank you for your trust and love once again.