What's me?---My name is Aya Katayanagi. I'm from Tokyo, Japan and am twenty years old. If I will build the foundation of my life from age twenty through forty,I'm just on the starting line. I love dancing, singing, watching movies and going shopping as well as every other girl does. I also enjoy driving though I don't drive myself. I used to swim with a team for ten years, so I still swim well. An important thing for me is I visited Istanbul, Turkey from 1997 through 1998 as an exchange student of Rotary Club. It's an international volunteer organization and they offer students the chance to go overseas to learn about a country and tell the people there about a student's own country at the same time. I experienced a ton of new things in Turkey. Actually, everything was new and unique for me. I visited the famous mosques in Istanbul, such as Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. These mosques are now museums, but I still could see people praying in Blue Mosque. Since we don't have one certain religion in Japan, this was very interesting for me. I had never thought about God or religion until then. Their culture is based on the religion and it is an incredibly great culture. I also did an actual volunteer activity there. I went to the kindergarten to teach ORIGAMI, Japanese paper folding. It was fun for me and I got a chance to talk with kids in Turkish. I really enjoyed my stay in Turkey. I went to Turkey because it was the "farthest" country for me at that time. What I mean by farthest is far away geographically, and also a culture that is very different from mine. Now I'm in Portland Oregon, going to Lewis & Clark College to study American culture and language. This place is very beautiful with lots of green and blue, which I don't have in my city in Japan. Students study very hard,too. All those surroundings help me to do what I do. I don't know what I'm going to do in the future yet, though I have many dreams in my mind. It might be a volunteer activity or it might be an interpreter.... I'm interested in doing volunteer work, partly because of my experience in Turkey. Volunteering seems like just giving, but it's not. There are people all the time and once you communicate with people, you learn things from them. Some people are poor, but they know how to enjoy living without wealth. They had something that I had forgotten in daily life. They taught me about being thankful. There are many ways to volunteer, such as by sending food and clothes to people who need them, by going places to help education, by talking to someone who feels lonely and unneeded, physically or mentally. I don't know what I can do, but I hope that everyone can have a chance to study. I think the most important thing for volunteering is the spirit to think of people. I also like to learn languages. I learn languages to understand people more, and also to be understood. I just don't know what I'll do in the future right now, but I still dream the impossible. For this moment, I'd challenge anything with joy to have a positive life. I try to trust and respect others and myself. And keep telling myself that I can do whatever I want!!--- That's me.

Aya Katayanagi: The Writer

The Little Pigeon Inside Of Me One step, two steps, then ceases and looks around. . . . My writing is like a pigeon. My pen goes back and forth with a slow pace and then it stops. I spend quite a long time before I start writing; that's because I don't know how to start, I think. The very first sentence is always the most difficult part for me. Especially when I've been given the topic, it's harder than writing about my own topic. After I write the first word, sometimes I can go on smoothly, but not all the time. These things happen to me when I write in both my native language and English. Besides, I have problems with vocabulary and grammar in English writing. But basically I don't dislike writing. For example, I like writing letters to my friends. It is easier for me to tell them how I think of things or occasionally how I am feeling at that time. If you speak out a word, you can never take it back, and words can have great power sometimes. They could hurt people, heal people, or make people happy. But when you write, you can read the words yourself before they go out to people. Your writing can become less emotional or less tempered depending on your words. You can also erase words, which means you can express exactly how you feel or think. I used to write stories when I was an elementary school student as an assignment for summer vacation. I liked to write adventure and fantasy stories. I could be a pilot, fairy or witch on a broomstick. I used to have my own "imaginary world" full of dreams when I was a little girl. I think that's because I read a lot of books about these kinds of fantasy. It is funny that I adored witches, but good witches. So, as you can see I enjoy writing, especially stories and diaries. Pigeons are the symbol of peace in Japan. In places where people live in peace, there are pigeons. Maybe pigeons are one of the animals which are closest to people. They also show up in some old songs for kids in Japan. Children sing these songs very often when they see pigeons. Children sing to pigeons, "come pigeons, come and eat some crops. Eat them all together, without fighting". It is always a heart warming thing to see those kids and pigeons though I don't know why pigeons are the symbol of peace. Maybe people expected pigeons to bring happiness or peace to the world just like they once brought letters to people. What I'd like to learn in our writing class is how to construct my ideas to write neat and effective sentences because I always start writing without organizing. I write what I think at that moment, so my idea about the topic sometimes changes by the end of the writing. And my writing doesn't make sense on that occasion. I have to understand the topic first, then take my time to make sure what I want to say through my writing, and start writing without being afraid. This seems simple but I think I'll struggle to achieve this. But I'll do my best to try. This is a new challenge for me.

Please Email me.

Click here to see the writing assignment.