Dreaming of becoming a theater actress 

Jeong Sahng-mi, who majored in novels at the Department of Creative Writing in college, spent four intense years deeply by getting immersed in theater and focusing more on activities in the theater club than on academics. 
However, she began to receive similar comments and questions from those around her. "Your gait seems a bit off," "Why don't your eyes smile when you laugh, only your mouth does?" With these recurring comments, she finally began to realize the differences between her and others in terms of the physical body. 
Despite trying various treatments such as hospitals, oriental medicine clinics, and natural therapies, her physical condition continued to deteriorate gradually. Her movements started to fail one by one. After numerous visits to hospitals, she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the neurology department of Sinchon Severance Hospital in 2006.

After becoming disabled 

Jeong Sahng-mi eventually became severely disabled, and her world changed in an instant. She could endure physical discomfort. Facing the reality that she could no longer pursue her dream of being an 'actress' due to it, she plunged her into a sense of loss and depression. 
She sought to escape from the reality of her worn-out body and mind, so she went to Japan, where her younger sister lived. She used the language study in Japan as an escape from reality. While attending a university-affiliated Japanese language school, she took theater classes. 

After completing her undergraduate studies and advancing to a two-year acting course, she immersed herself in the Japanese theater stage, learning acting and directing and staging performances. Her production, a 'translated play of a Korean work' featuring the first Korean name in the troupe, garnered a rare and enthusiastic response, with the audience packing the theater and even returning for repeat viewings.

Debut as a playwright

In 2012, her play 'Their Promise' won the Chosun Ilbo New Writer's Award for plays. She finds a sense of exhilaration when writing plays. This is because her characters come alive vividly through dialogue. Characters come to life not as printed words on a page but vividly through dialogue and stage directions. Despite the challenging research and plot development, she finds joy in writing as the language beads unexpectedly flow when she finally writes the first lines.

Aspiring to be a better writer

Even if one completes a play, it is very hard to make the play performed on stage. It's difficult for a script to be selected, and even if it is, it often falls through midway. Occasionally, it was also difficult to receive manuscript fees from financially struggling organizations. Furthermore, when facing conflicts with stakeholders who want to change the dialogue differently from her original intentions during the planning stages, she always feels like climbing a rugged mountain. When each performance is shown on stage despite all these unfavorable conditions, the efforts made thus far start to pay off. Watching audiences laugh, cry, and ponder difficult questions within the theater, she feels a warm thrill and fulfillment in her heart. That is the reason why she never gives up on theater, even in challenging circumstances.

Wanting to communicate with the world through senior theater

She sees the slowly progressing muscular dystrophy she is experiencing as an early arrival of aging rather than a disability. Every people are getting aged. In our country facing a super-aged society, she thinks that she is experience ageing earlier than others. In such a physical condition, she wants to communicate with the world through a form of an ‘elderly drama' in which modern life is portrayed through a play.