Once my mind was made up, I would never back down, not even if it meant breaking a bone in my body. Of course, this was all before I became mature. When my mother would scold me for doing something wrong, I would talk back to her, saying, “No. Absolutely not!” All I had to do was admit that I was wrong, but I would rather have died than let those words out of my mouth. My mother, though, had quite a strong personality as well.

       She would strike me, and say, “You think you can get away with not answering your parent?” Once, she struck me so hard she knocked me down. Even after I got up, I wouldn’t give in to her. She just stood in front of me, crying loudly. Even then, I wouldn’t admit that I was wrong.

       My competitive spirit was as strong as my stubbornness. I couldn’t stand to lose in any situation. The adults in the village would say, “Osan’s Little Tiny-Eyes, once he decides to do something, he does it.”

       I don’t remember how old I was when this happened. A boy gave me a bloody nose and ran away. For a month after that, I would go to his house every day and stand there, waiting for him to come out. The village adults were amazed to see me persist until finally his parents apologized to me. They even gave me a container full of rice cakes.

       This doesn’t mean I was always trying to win with stubborn persistence. I was physically much larger and stronger than other children my age. No child could beat me in arm wrestling. I once lost a wrestling match to a boy three years older than I was, and it made me so angry that I couldn’t sit still. I went to a nearby mountain, stripped some bark from an acacia tree, and for the next six months I worked out on this tree every evening to become strong enough to defeat that child. At the end of six months, I challenged him to a rematch and managed to beat him.