Friday 14 September 2012

There should be....

A meaning and reason to stay here.

I was writing my essay(1500words) last night until 4 and during that time, I was thinking about my exchange year.

An email came from my mother. A very short one.

"You have to think carefully why you have chosen to study there and spend the time without regret."

It stroke my heart. Since I knew this but never wanted to think about it. It's already more than 2 weeks staying here. I went to many places in London, ate delicious food, made many friends, settled down so far, and satisfied with them. But is that life going to continue for the whole year and suddenly I have to face the reality going back to Japan??Is that what I really wanted to do?

No and Yes. I cannot take out all those parts from my exchange year, although I don't want to spend just to enjoy the lifestyle. Then I will be ending up a mere tourist in London.
I need to drag myself out from the comfort zone.
Before I came here, a lot of people gave me some advice for studying abroad.
My senpai(senior who I respected since high school) told me there is no meaning to  study abroad if it ended up just having fun or having good experience because you can have those even though you were living in Japan.
My professor told me to choose more difficult decisions during my stay. Taking difficult classes, making friends who hate Japan or Asia, talking with different kinds of people, different classes of people, (It's very easy to talk with people, the point is, with whom are you talking) and going to places where people usually don't go.

I always need to question myself for dong this. If I ask myself now, I will admit to say "I haven't followed my professors words." It's not an easy thing but this will enrich my life.

I will not expect to have fun since I guess  no matter what I do here, in the end, I will enjoy the most of it. It's too easy to have fun(Or may be not, we still don't know) However, as my professor said, I want to challenge and give it a try in any kinds of things even though it's not my taste.




4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ery mature and - if I may say their Japanese of you! ^^ I think most people in the UK would say the opposite.

    When I went to Hitotsubashi I wanted to take the most challenging classes and forget about having fun; I pushed myself too hard, becoming ill and ended up missing out on many social occasions where I could have benefited whilst still enjoying myself.

    I don't like to give people advice since everyone has their own way of doing things. However, from my experience let me just say that I wish I had realised that having a bit of both isn't necessarily a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with Rick, it's important to have a variety of experiences but if you're not having fun or enjoying whatever it is you are doing it will be hard to find motivation. Obviously throughout the year there will be ups and downs, but the downs will be easier to deal with if you have something to look forward to :).

    You're a clever lady Arisa so I won't offer any advice because this post shows that your thinking about it properly! If you continue being sociable I'm sure you'll meet different types of people who can introduce you to different things :).

    ReplyDelete
  4. same here^^~

    when i told my friends and terchers i'm going to study chinese abroad,sounds like a weird thing to do.'why you learn your own culture in foreign country??' they think i just want to escape and travel, things like that~~but which i pretty much sure you must have similar feeling as mine that the people we have met here hold a strong passion in what they study!and that is almost all about asia culture,i am so glad to hear from a european said how much he/she is into japanese,chinese...how much these cultures have influenced their life in the past and is going to change them even more!! ^^

    it is always a perfect decision to make.no matter how crazy we might go, because of we are surrounding by a group of people who take our culture as a treasure,it is impossible for us to go too wild and lost ourselves anyway~~,haha~~

    maybe now we still have bit time to simply be a tourist^^

    MINDY

    ReplyDelete