Well, this is it. My finals are done, the other exchange students are moving out, and I\u2019m getting ready to say goodbye to Japan. Although it\u2019s a bit sad to be leaving what I have grown to consider my second home, I\u2019ve made so many great friends and memories so I can\u2019t say that I have a lot of regret.<\/p>\n
While I can\u2019t wait to be home again, I\u2019m also looking forward to the future because I intend to return to Japan with renewed vigor. When I first came here, I was so nervous that I could barely even prepare myself \u2013 it felt like something completely out of a dream, so it didn\u2019t even register to me that I was actually going to another country and I was pretty surprised when I got here. However, now that I\u2019ve lived here for four months, I\u2019ve developed a new passion for becoming fluent in the language and returning to enjoy all the new, incredible, sometimes kind of funny things that this country has to offer.<\/p>\n
I used to find it difficult to believe people who studied abroad and preached about how much it changes you. I thought they were just saying it to sound worldly, and I\u2019m sure it has to sound that way to other people, too. But once you experience it yourself, you see exactly how right these people are.<\/p>\n
Coming to Japan has given me a new sense of motivation and determination. I learned how difficult \u2013 and how rewarding \u2013 learning a language like Japanese really is. I saw, and imitated, an almost completely different way of life, and I was able to put it into perspective to analyze exactly how I live my own life, too. I developed more empathy and understanding towards those who lead different lives from what I\u2019m used to in my own culture, and I have gained brand new interest in exploring even more cultures and languages outside of Japanese. I gained new purpose.<\/p>\n
I want to cherish my time. Back at home, I rarely explored because I thought that I\u2019d seen it all, and I was content living the same life each and every day. But every day in Japan, I was visiting new places and talking to people and learning, and I felt invigorated. I want to share this passion and knowledge with people back home, and I don\u2019t want to sit stagnant \u2013 I want to keep learning and growing.<\/p>\n
Coming to Japan has been one of the best, most eye-opening experiences of my life. I\u2019m so grateful that I was able to come here and learn everything that I did, and I know that this is going to play a part in the person that I\u2019m striving to become.<\/p>\n
Until I get home, I\u2019m going to make the most of my time during the remaining week that I have here, and then I\u2019m going to start planning my next visits. Thank you very much for this opportunity, and I look forward to returning to the Rollins campus and hopefully encouraging more people to take a chance and study abroad like I did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, this is it. My finals are done, the other exchange students are moving out, and I\u2019m getting ready to say goodbye to Japan. Although it\u2019s a bit sad to be leaving what I have grown to consider my second home, I\u2019ve made so many great friends and memories so I can\u2019t say that I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kansai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15623,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140\/revisions\/15623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}