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I recently read about what the young generation of workers want
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in Harvard Business Review.
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One thing that stuck out to me was: don't just talk about impact,
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but make an impact.
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I'm a little bit older than you,
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maybe much older than you,
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but this is exactly the same goal that I had when I was in college.
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I wanted to make my own impact for those who live under injustice;
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it's the reason that I became a documentary journalist,
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the reason I became
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a prisoner in North Korea for 140 days.
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It was March 17, 2009.
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It is St. Patrick's Day for all of you,
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but it was the day that turned my life upside down.
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My team and I were making a documentary about North Korean refugees
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living below human life in China.
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We were at the border.
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It was our last day of filming.
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There was no wire fence
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or sign to show that it is the border,
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but this is a place that a lot of North Korean defectors use
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as an escape route.
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It was still winter,
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and the river was frozen.
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When we were in the middle of the frozen river,
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we were filming about the condition of the cold weather
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and the environment
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that North Koreans had to deal with
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when they seek their freedom.
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And suddenly, one of my team members shouted,
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So I looked back,
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and there were two small soldiers in green uniforms with rifles,
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chasing after us.
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We all ran as fast as we could.
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I prayed that, please don't let them shoot my head.
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And I was thinking that,
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if my feet are on Chinese soil,
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And I made it to Chinese soil.
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Then I saw my colleague Laura Ling fall on her knees.
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I didn't know what to do at that short moment,
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but I knew that I could not leave her alone there
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when she said, "Euna, I can't feel my legs."
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In a flash, we were surrounded by these two Korean soldiers.
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They were not much bigger than us,
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but they were determined to take us to their army base.
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I begged and yelled for any kind of help,
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hoping that someone would show up from China.
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