Finals Week: This I Believe

Did I tell you how awesome my English 101 professor is??? No? Well she is! Tonight we had to "take" the final exam for her class. What we did was go to her house and read out loud our final essay in front of her and our classmates. It was a unique and fun way to end the semester. We as a class developed a unique relationship with each other and needless to say, I love my classmates and teacher. I usually suck at the English subject in school but for some reason, this class is the class where I have the highest grade out of all my classes I've taken this semester. For our English Writing & Reasoning final, we had a little fun by writing a "This I Believe" essay. And guess what? I'm hooked to not only the essay I just wrote but the entire concept. I have found myself going to the organization's website often and even liking their Facebook page. The organization also has an official Podcast that you can download off of iTunes and listen to audio of the latest essays submitted by average Joe's like me and you. I highly recommend looking it up; you get to hear the beliefs of others. Sometimes they're just silly and fun to listen to. Other times, they're more serious and you can learn from them. Even well-known people like Penn Jillette or Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden have been featured with their essays with audio on the website.

My English professor tweaked the requirements for our essays by giving us a word limit of somewhere between 450-750 words. She also encourages us to throw our works out there for people to notice and hopefully, read. Chances are, I probably won't submit my essay to the "This I Believe" website because they ask writers to limit the word count to approximately 500 words; my essay is somewhere under the maximum limit my teacher set and I don't think I'm willing to make anymore changes than the ones I had to do for the final draft I had to turn in. Unless you beg to differ and would like me to submit it to the website, drop me a line. Otherwise, I'm going to take the opportunity to post my essay here on my blog for anyone interested in reading it. I hope you enjoy!

Filling the Space Between Two Countries, and Two Cultures

I believe in mutual respect, especially within a family. Mutual respect helps mend and strengthen relationships. Mutual respect brings nations together.

I grew up in a family with two different backgrounds. From my father’s side, I am an American. From my mother’s side, I am Japanese. From a cultural and religious point of view, the United States and Japan are different places. Because of that, I felt that there was always this space of separation between us religiously and culturally. But I believe that mutual respect can and should fill in that space. It is a great advantage to be able to speak two different languages and I can do it because of the dual backgrounds I inherited. It is also a great advantage to be a Japanese-American because I’ve gotten many opportunities to meet and get acquainted with people from both countries. 

I believe in maintaining a good, strong relationship with those we are close to via mutual respect. Mutual respect is an achievement and in order to do so, I believe in respecting each other’s culture and ways of life. It’s a privilege to get to know and experience the different cultures.

I was raised in Tokyo up until the age of five. And yes, I spoke Japanese, which I consider to be my first language. I would then be raised in different parts of the United States, depending on where my dad’s occupation would take us. Within a few years’ time, I have forgotten my childhood Japanese, making English my primary means of communication. From the day I left Tokyo, 15 years would pass until I returned to Japan. I spent two years in central Japan doing voluntary missionary service for my church. Everywhere I went, I was reacquainted with the beautiful language and the wonderful culture I was used to experiencing as a child.

I believe in mutual respect even when different cultures clash from time to time.Because of my background, I believe in the Japanese way of life. But because I spent most of my life here in the states, I also believe in the American way of life. I have a great deal of respect for both the Japanese and American cultures.

At the conclusion of my two year stay in central Japan, I reunited with my family in Nagoya. We travelled to a city north of Tokyo called Utsunomiya; my mother was born and raised in a town near there. We still have family living there and Ihaven’t seen them since moving out of Japan so this visit was long overdue.

In our 15 year absence, my grandfather, my mother’s father died of cancer.Japanese funerals and Japanese graves are quite different from the American ones. One of the customary things Japanese family members do after the death of a loved one is to visit the burial site on a frequent basis in order to place flowers,clean the grave stone, and pay their respect.

I was unable to attend my grandfather’s funeral after his passing. But coming to his resting place and finally pay my respect was the next best thing. I felt it a tremendous honor to do so. We polished up the grave stone, poured water into two goblets and replaced the withering flowers held in them with fresh ones. We then lit some incense and placed them at the base of the gravestone to smolder.I stepped back and stood there for a minute. My aunt who was accompanying us said to me in Japanese, “It’s okay if you do not understand completely what this all means.” She was referring to all that is symbolic in what we did in our visit to the grave site.

My response: “I do not understand every meaning of what we have done, but I wish to respect it.” Ignoring cultural and religious barriers, I closed my eyes,clasped my hands, and bowed my head towards grandfather’s grave and I just talked to him in my mind. Yes, I talked to him, even though he was gone. It just felt right.

We all hold true to different ways of life. We as a family understand the value of respect. I as an American paid my respect to the Japanese and my relatives. And in exchange, I was paid back with their respect. Mutual respect is a precious accomplishment and of great value. This, I believe.

An Afternoon Worth Remembering...

Well, I said in a previous post that I would touch back on this story sooner or later, so here it is.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people have at least one or two experiences where they would develop a greater sense of appreciation for life and mortality; an experience that could've directly or indirectly been caused and sometimes the situation may have been life threatening. Unfortunately for me, the two "life-appreciating" moments I remember were BOTH potentially life threatening. The first experience took place back during the 2008 Thanksgiving weekend and you may have already heard/read it. The second occurred exactly 3 months later and I share it with you now. This occurred around the beginning of second semester of my Senior year:

It was a sunny afternoon when the school day ended. I was driving home from school and roads were wet as a result of the rain the fell earlier in the day. The roads were not just wet; it looked like black ice as a result of the sunlight. Water on the ground that you can see a reflection of yourself or any other object. As I was slowing down for a red light, just before the intersection was when the good day went bad. It all happened so fast yet in slow motion, as I felt this sudden forward impact. In an instant my right foot pushed down on the break pedal as far as my strength would allow me to. I then felt this burning sensation on my face as the airbags deployed. The impact also pushed me into two cars in front of me. When it was all over, I felt like I was thrust into a nightmare; a nightmare of momentary pain and horror.

In the end, I was feeling bruised and sore all over. I was left with minor propellant burns on my left forearm and a scar (that eventually healed) on my face, below and to the left of my chin. I was able to drive the now totaled car onto the side of the road and get out of the way. I killed the engine and got out of my car. Although nothing was broken, I could barely stand because my mind was still in shock of what just happened. My heart was racing and I was breathing heavy, but I kept my composure. To my surprise, the person that rear-ended me was a someone I knew pretty well; a friend. That's all I want to say about that.

I was taken to the hospital to be checked on; for internal injuries (which I knew was highly unlikely) and a concussion (which WAS highly possible). My friend was there too. After spending about an hour or so at the hospital lobby, I went home. I've been out of the house for almost 12 hours; but it felt more like an eternity. But when I got home that evening, aside from feeling minor pain from the impact, I could never have been happier to be alive. From that day, I had a greater appreciation for life and mortality and I tried to live in a more optimistic fashion. I also easily found it in my heart to forgive the person that did this to me. I'm sure the majority of motorists are bound to get into an accident at least once... This experience taught me that you only live once (at least in this world unless you believe in reincarnation) and that there's more to life than meets the eye.

So there you have it. The story of my established appreciation (no pun intended).

NOTE: This post was prepared prior to my departure.

Again, I'll see you readers in 2 years.