A Letter to My Future Self

By:

Jose Alberto Beltran-Lara

Published:

Countries

Demographics

,

Majors

, ,

Regions

Jose Alberto Beltran-Lara

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> ใ“ใ‚“ใซใกใฏ <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> California State University San Bernardino <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Tokyo, Japan <i>Program provider:</i> California State University International Programs <i>Major/minor:</i> Business Administration – Analytics Concentration / Japanese and Computer Science <i>Demographics:</i> Hispanic/Latinx, First-Generation American, First-Generation College Student <i>Future career aspirations:</i> Build a stronger relationship between Japan and the US in the technological area as a business analyst. Encourage other first-generation students to study abroad. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Improve my Japanese writing, listening, and speaking skills. 2. Enrich myself in the Japanese culture. 3. Build strong connections with Japanese students, professors, and colleagues.

Dear 30-year-old me,

I hope you are doing really well, doing what you are passionate about. I have so much to ask you but I will ask you later in the coming weeks. Today is Monday, June 26, 2023. Well, a little bit of the current situation that I am currently at, I am almost in the last month of my study abroad program and I still canโ€™t believe itโ€™s almost coming to a close. Feels like yesterday I decided to step into my fears and travel to a whole new country. This whole year has been really amazing, meeting new people, traveling all over Japan, and just having a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope this experience has opened your mind to new adventures for you.

I hope this has let you travel to other countries and hopefully try to change the world for the better. Using your innovative skills and your never give up attitude, I just know that right now you are living the life that many others would fight for. Right now it hasn’t gotten easier for me but I think that is a good thing, I think being able to continue to struggle will make me stronger later down the road and I just want to say that I am very proud of you for sacrificing so much to get where you are. Maybe there were some parts of your life where you felt life was pointless but you hung in there and I am very happy to be that same person.

For the next couple of weeks I will be writing to you to show you how much I have been able to live from this experience but overall how I am feeling and hopefully with you reading this, I hope you are able to feel different emotions. I hope that this will be a foundation where you might call these letters nostalgic but also something to think about if you are in a current state where you donโ€™t know what to do. But regardless I hope you find these words meaningful to you.