Lesson 1 Embrace Connections
A Band United by a Name
My name is Lee ____
My first name ____ an impressive meaning in Korean: “a source of power and vitality.”
Since Saem sounds like Sam, I ____ to make that my English name.
____ up, I thought Lee was a common last name only in Korea.
Little ____ I know that it’s actually common in many other countries, too.
When ____ searched “Sam Lee” on a social media website, I was amazed at what I saw.
There were so many people all ____ the world with that name!
Just for fun, I randomly chose several Sam Lees ____ sent them friend requests.
An Unexpected Connection
A lot ____ them accepted my friend request.
While looking through their profiles, ____ noticed something interesting.
Several Sam ____ of various ages and nationalities were interested in music.
There was a Sam Lee in his mid-30s from ____ who enjoyed singing and writing lyrics.
And there was ____ 42-year-old Canadian Sam Lee who was a drummer.
According to her profile, everyone called her Sam even though her real name was ____
Finally, there was an American Sam Lee who played the ____ guitar.
Suddenly, I had a great ____ I sent a message to all three.
Here is what I wrote: “Hi! I’m Sam Lee ____ Korea.
I write ____ and play the keyboard.
How about ____ a virtual band called The Sam Lees?”
To my surprise, all three ____ agreed.
That was the ____ of our band’s journey.
The Virtual Music Factory
____ tried to practice once a week through a video chat app, but we encountered several problems.
First of ____ we all lived in different time zones.
This ____ it difficult to pick a convenient time for everyone to practice.
Secondly, there were audio issues with the app, which caused us to be out of ____
____ we put our heads together and devised a better way of playing music.
We decided to ____ the songs as if we were working in a virtual music factory.
After we decided on a song, I would play it on my keyboard and send it to Singaporean ____
He ____ sing along with the keyboard and send the recording to American Sam.
Then American Sam would add his guitar part, and Samantha would finish the song with ____ drumming.
When it came to choosing songs ____ play, we took turns.
Since each of us prefers a different genre of music and comes from a different culture, we all ended up learning a lot about ____ kinds of music.
It was interesting and a ____ of fun.
“Long-Distance Friendship”
Shortly after we started the band, a global ____ began.
Since all ____ our normal lives were put on hold, we valued our online interactions more than ever.
At one point, Singaporean Sam became ill and needed to spend some ____ in the hospital, so the band took a break.
However, ____ still met from time to time by using the video chat app.
We talked about our lives and ____ what we could do to cheer Singaporean Sam up.
Since he had to stay in the hospital on his birthday, the rest of ____ recorded his favorite song as his birthday present.
When we played it for him, he laughed so hard that he ____
That ____ mainly because the song was sung by the worst singer in the band—me!
It was good to see him laugh even ____ he was lying in his hospital bed.
After Singaporean Sam recovered, we decided to write and ____ our own song.
We called the song “Long-Distance Friendship,” and we posted ____ online.
The song didn’t get much attention, but we were proud of ____ we had achieved together.
Our band is something really special.
Never did we expect that we would build ____ strong relationships with one another.
After all, we don’t come from similar backgrounds, nor have we had the same ____ experiences.
Yet we now talk about almost everything together, ____ the hardships we face in life.
I think it’s been ____ valuable to get advice from people with such different perspectives.
We would all like to meet in person and play our music on ____ street someday.
But even if ____ never happens, we’ve still been incredibly lucky.
Four random people became ____ friends simply because of our names.
Life can ____ amazing sometimes!