Seasons Passing

So far on this trip, I have been able to experience three of the four seasons. Along with the time spent with processing how to live on my own, I have had so many thoughts concerning how I’m spending my time. I only have a year to spend in Japan, so I should make full use of my time here. Much of these thoughts are rooted from my own experience of watching the leaves change their hue across the months from a very mellow green scenery to a very rich rouge (there’s even a term for this in Japanese called “kouyou”). The state of my mind changed just as quickly as the leaves of the trees and I keep pondering to myself, “what can I do to maximize my time here”? The answer that I have come to understanding with is that there is no correct answer, and that the most correct the answer can be is to take every day as a new day. Every day, my mind changes its thoughts so frequently, it’s impossible for the me now to know what would benefit the me in the future, I can only know in the future. So the only way for me to know what’s best for me is to just take every day at my own pace without looking back. Of course, there are still so much more activities that I want to do in Japan, but I can’t possible maximize my time here without listening to what my body needs first and foremost.

That being said, a student in my program recently had their birthday pass and I was there along with a few other students to celebrate it with him. That birthday party was the event that really set the tone for me internally that I will be spending one entire year in Japan. I will continue to grow as a person as a person, even if there is not physical indicator of how much I grow. Whether it’s my language capabilities, emotional intelligence, social awareness, I will continue to grow for the year that I am here and adapt.