Walking Yonsei After Dark in Late Autumn

The Day I Came to Take an Exam

The first time I came to Yonsei University was to sit a transfer exam for the English literature department. I had little time to see the campus. I found the room, went in nervous and headed straight home when it was over.

I got through the first round and was turned down at the final review. I remember looking for my name on the list and coming to the end of it without finding it. I went on to study English literature at Sungkyunkwan University. My student years took a different course.

That’s why I think of Yonsei as somewhere a decision in my life is still visible. Had I been admitted, much of what followed might have looked different. The thought has never quite gone away.

When I came back on a late autumn evening, I first remembered the feeling of the exam day. The things I’d been too nervous to see then were easier to make out now.

---

What Changes at Night

By day, students and visitors keep the campus paths busy. At night the sound drops away and the paths seem wider. Baekyang-ro in particular becomes a pleasant place to walk.

Under the streetlights the buildings come into view softly. There are modern buildings on campus, but I was drawn to the older stone ones. Their outlines seemed clearer in the dark.

My pace slowed on its own. I wasn’t on my way to meet anyone or buy anything. I walked because the path carried on.

---

Stopping at the Underwood Statue

I found myself stopping at the statue of Horace Grant Underwood, the missionary associated with the university’s beginnings. You can see it clearly by day. It feels different at night.

In the soft light it seems to belong to the space around it. Looking at the statue and the buildings together, you get a sense of how much time the campus holds.

Standing there, I remembered the exam day again. I doubt I noticed the statue then. It had taken a second visit, years later, for me to see what had been beside me on the first.

---

The Season Left in the Ivy

The ivy on the walls stayed with me more than anything else. Autumn was giving way to winter. Most of the leaves had dried and lost their color. Somehow that suited the campus.

At night the light drew out the texture of the vines against the stone and gave them long shadows. You could see the surface of the building and what the season had left on it.

I remembered the weather when I came to take the exam. It was close to winter then, and the campus felt cold and unfamiliar. On this evening it was somewhere I could walk for as long as I liked.

I suspect we remember places partly through the state we were in when we saw them. I once waited for a result here. Now it was a place where I could think back over what came afterward.

---

Looking Again at a Choice That Has Passed

On the walk I thought about possibility more than regret. Would I be a different person if I’d been admitted here? There’s no way to follow the question all the way through.

Going to Sungkyunkwan to study English literature took me into the years I did have. Walking around Yonsei gave me a chance to see the choice again from where I’d ended up.

The quiet campus was suited to that. There were few people around and no need to be on the way to anywhere. A walk like that can be hard to find in the city.

---

What Makes a Place Stay in the Memory

Places often stay in the memory because of the time in our lives they are attached to. The campus mattered to me for reasons that would be difficult to find on a sightseeing map.

In a way this was a visit I’d been late in making. I was able to see a place I hadn’t paid much attention to the first time. The feeling of waiting for an exam result met the feeling of returning years later.

For a while I had a clear sense of how different it felt to be on the same path as the person who had come here before. By the time I left, the thoughts I’d brought with me felt more settled.

Some memories of a place only come together when you see it again much later.

That’s what the walk gave me. I could look at a choice I’d once faced and make a little more sense of the time I’d had since.

---