Tags

, , , ,

For SONEs around the world today is…

While the girls are currently in Paris doing their promotions, they’ll also be in the city of love to celebrate the birthday of one of their youngest members, and our lovely Shikshin, Choi Sooyoung. As of February 10th in Korea, Sooyoung will be 23 years old (and 22 by western standards) which will mark another new year in her young life.

In honor of this special occassion, I unofficially declare this day, #ChoiSooyoungDay.

Before elaborating on what this means and the rituals that it entails, let’s quickly reflect on what she showed us at age 22.

She’s a Song Writer. A Talented One.

She can Tango! *swoon*

She’s the Queen of Hair Flipping.

Seriously.

She can make fellow artists call her Goddess.

Welcome to Sooyoungism.

She has some incredible English skills.

This is just a handful of the top highlights that Sooyoung had during the last year, and there’s no doubt that there’s more in store for the now 23 year old.

While Sooyoung certainly deserves our best wishes, I propose we celebrate Choi Sooyoung day a little more creatively this year. As many of you know our shikshin is also considered to be the member with the best imitations.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then I think as SONE’s, we should live February 10th like Choi Sooyoung would. 

This means adhering to one or more of the following…

Principles of Sooyoung.

Principle #1 – Be A Shikshin

Sooyoung is the group’s Shikshin (Korean for God of Eating). Which means that a great way to celebrate her momumental day would be to indulge on food in honor of her. I’d personally suggest a big slice of cake.

If you’re not the type to indulge, just eat more than you usually would. Be sure you finish every meal with a full stomach. Now before you yell at me for making you gain some extra pounds, remember that it’s in celebration of our lovely god of eating, which happens only once a year.

Principle #2 – Be Playful!

Whether it’s mimicking someone, cracking jokes, or displaying Kabb/Aegyo, one thing Sooyoung always does is have fun.

Kkab: Korean slang for being extremely energetic/playful and overreacting in a silly/annoying manner. The word “Kkab” stems from the phrase “깝치는” (kkabchineun).

Aegyo  [애교] – Acting overly cute. There are two general forms of aegyo:
Voice – characterised by whining and baby-like sounds.
Body – peace signs, head tilts, pouting, winking etc…

How you release your playful side is up to you, but remember doing the wrong action to a certain person could be a bad idea. You have been forewarned.

Principle #3 – Be Confident.

If there’s one thing that our birthday girl has it’s plenty of confidence. She doesn’t shy away from interviews (Korean or Foreign) and is always up for answering the tough questions. Let’s face it, one of her specialties is eloquence, and you can’t have that without belief in your own thoughts and feelings.

While some might say that this is attributed to her natural gift for language, I’d like to think that it takes a certain assured individual to have the ambition to get out of their comfort zone and learn how to speak a foreign tongue. It takes even more courage to use it in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Principle #4 – Be Thankful for what you have.

I did have some hard times back then. When I was there, I took the underground trains. If I wanted to be on a TV show, I had to go in advance to meet the producers and audition for them. Now, our schedule just fills up by itself. When we arrive at the airport, there are cars waiting for us. So when I went this time, I felt humbled. What I couldn’t do as one then, has become possible because I’m together with these eight. They all became even more precious to me.”

– Choi Sooyoung

The above excerpt was taken from a Korean interview about her Japanese pre-debut days with Route 0. Shortly after her story, fellow member Jessica added:

Sooyoung always says to us “We need to be thankful for what we have”. And she always says that she is thankful for what she has now.

Principle #5 – Be Kind, Compassionate and Caring to others.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT Principle of Sooyoung. This year our lovely #24 (Oh! jersey number) truly showed us how loving she really is. On Korean variety show Strong Heart she talked about her friendship with former basketball player, coach and SONE Park Seung-Il. While many share their own stories, Sooyoung shared his hardship on Korean television with viewers around the world. She talked about how the man who was stuck in his hospital bed taught her more about love than anyone else in her life. It was only fitting that Sooyoung would be the only SNSD member to win the Kang Shim Jang (Strong Heart Award for most touching story).

If that wasn’t enough, after Sooyoung’s own car accident in August, the recovering girl still took the time and effort to make a special video ‘message to SONEs’ to silence our worries. She didn’t only just tell us that she was fine, but thanked everyone for their prayers and even apologized for her absence from SNSD’s Taiwanese concert.

If that wasn’t reason enough to be kind and caring on Choi Sooyoung Day, then take a page from 107 K-SONE’s who donated blood in Sooyoung’s name last year for her 22nd birthday. These people took time out of their day to give an important resource that saves real lives. Such a selfless act was done in honor of Sooyoung.

While it’s not necessary to live Choi Sooyoung day like the namesake, I think it’d be a pretty easy task to accomplish at least one of these 5 principles. A lot of us probably live by these positive ideals on a daily basis. However try adding a new one to your day and see how it goes.

Whether it’s eating that extra slice of cake, having that larger cup of coffee, cracking that joke, walking with your head held high, raising your arm in class, giving your parents a hug, or helping out at a local shelter or community center, there are plenty of ways to celebrate today’s occassion. How far you want to take it is up to you.

I personally think that the more you do on Choi Sooyoung day, the happier you and others will be.

(Unless you get punched for Aegyo/Kkab.)

If you have Birthday wishes for Sooyoung, feel free to leave them in the comments below. If you want to share with us how you’ll be celebrating Choi Sooyoung Day, or her birthday, don’t be shy and chat with the community!

FROM EVERYONE HERE ON SNSDKOREAN.COM

HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY CHOI SOOYOUNG!

#choisooyoungday

Update: Photo of Sooyoung’s Birthday Celebration at the Korean Embassy in Paris

Credits: nukem384@SNSDKorean, tumblr.com/tags/Sooyoung, SuperSnazzy@Tumblr, shaniasnsdlove@youtube.com, humanbroall@youtube.com, theamericanchinese@youtube.com, simoncurtis@twitter, krishaluvpeace@youtube.com, ssfshortclips2@youtube.com