It is amazing how quickly time passes when you are barely paying attention. As cliché as it to say, it feels like just yesterday I was graduating high school, but it is a tad mind boggling that that “yesterday” for me was back in 2012. The distance, both literally and figuratively, between where I was during 2012 and where I am now astounds me.
Looking through the journey I have experienced that has brought me to this point, I can pinpoint the decisions that have been beneficial to my future. Taking a year off to build my financial stability was perhaps one of the first major beneficial decisions that immediately comes to mind, even if it did cause a delay in transferring to a four-year university. One year came and went and after seeing little progress in moving up at my part time job the next best step for myself was returning to school and finishing up the remaining requirements I needed in order to transfer.
The spring semester of 2015 I enrolled in a night course of Japanese in order to fulfill my language requirement. I was already familiar with the language, and as all of the Spanish classes had already been filled, I happily registered. From that point on, I acquired my Associates degree in Japanese in the spring of 2017, was accepted into the Japanese Language and Cultures program at California State University Monterey Bay.
Now, after living in Japan for an academic year and powering through my final year with my capstone project, I have been presented the opportunity to return to Japan in March of 2021 to teach English. I am excited to see what other opportunities will be waiting for me during my time working in Japan.
Looking through the journey I have experienced that has brought me to this point, I can pinpoint the decisions that have been beneficial to my future. Taking a year off to build my financial stability was perhaps one of the first major beneficial decisions that immediately comes to mind, even if it did cause a delay in transferring to a four-year university. One year came and went and after seeing little progress in moving up at my part time job the next best step for myself was returning to school and finishing up the remaining requirements I needed in order to transfer.
The spring semester of 2015 I enrolled in a night course of Japanese in order to fulfill my language requirement. I was already familiar with the language, and as all of the Spanish classes had already been filled, I happily registered. From that point on, I acquired my Associates degree in Japanese in the spring of 2017, was accepted into the Japanese Language and Cultures program at California State University Monterey Bay.
Now, after living in Japan for an academic year and powering through my final year with my capstone project, I have been presented the opportunity to return to Japan in March of 2021 to teach English. I am excited to see what other opportunities will be waiting for me during my time working in Japan.