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by Ryoko Sakurai |
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ISALC, Lewis and Clark College
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by Ryoko Sakurai |
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When do you think the brightest moment is in your life? Although generally most people would answer adolescence, to be honest, I do not know the answer because I have lived only for eighteen years. However, one thing I can say is that I had a special moment in my youth, when people think the most wonderful time is. I made wonderful friends during this period. We shared much special time and they helped me expand my narrow values. The encounter with them was a kind of revolution in my life.
It was spring in 1999 that we met one another, having the same purpose at TOFL Seminar, which is a preparatory school for going abroad. We all had a goal to get a high score on the TOEFL to go abroad or to enter Sophere University in Japan. They had a variety of backgrounds. For example, one boy had been in the military. (It is very rare to enter it in Japan.) One girl had been a kind of bad girl. So, it was a very fresh experience for me to meet them because I was brought up in an environment where everyone had almost the same background. For instance, I had been in a girls' school for six years. My friends there all had almost the same backgrounds and values. And, of course, there were only girls. So, it was a big change; it was a fresh encounter with a new world to meet them, if nothing else, only the fact that some of them were boys. Although of course, I loved my friends in my girls' school, it was a sensational and beneficial incident to meet them because I had not had a chance to experience different types of perspectives.
We spent really really precious time studying, discussing and just hanging out. Every day we studied together, having the same purpose, and we taught the points to each other which we could not understand. Sometimes we gave one another a test in order to check whether we remembered the vocabulary words or not. We went to the Tokyo Disney Land and I broke my foot because I fell down near the Cinderella Castle two weeks before I left Japan, and two days later I went camping with them and climbed a mountain. In reality, two of my friends gave me piggyback ride up the mountain since I couldn't climb on my own.
On the way to the campground, unexpectedly, I learned a wonderful lesson from my friends. It was a night with glittering stars. At first, I was impressed with an explanation about a constellation of stars by one of the my friends, who was very familiar with it, but gradually I got angry at myself for my passive attitude toward studying. I did not know the names of the constellation even though I had learned them before in school. Although I had listened to what my teacher said without any interest at that time, the stars were very beautiful when I actually saw them, and I thought that I would have seen the stars with more pleasure, if I had remembered the constellation. When I explained my regret to my friends, one of them said to me, "It's not too late to start studying about the stars. Not only about constellations, but also about everything. You can start studying anything whenever you are interested in it. It's not too late, Ryoko." I heartily agreed with her, and I realized that it was much better to go into action than to be worried about what I do not have now and to regret my past. Thanks to her, I could be prepared for absorbing many things in America without thinking that it is too late to start studying and reconfirm that the more I know something, the more I can enrich and enjoy my life on account of being able to look at something from a different point of view.
Although the purpose to go camping was to practice how to cook Japanese food in preparation for going abroad, that is, we tried to make Japanese food for Americans, finally, we just enjoyed our camping by chatting, fishing, drinking and testing our courage, even though we did cook Japanese food. It must have looked weird to other people that we made sushi, tempura and korokke at a campground. Later on, we also stayed overnight at each other's houses many times. Through all these activities, we discussed our dreams, future, and boy-girl relationships seriously, and also I learned about drinking. Like this, we shared a special time.
The days while I spent with my friends gave me not only wonderful memories, but also a chance to have a glimpse of a variety of perspectives, even though it was a very short period. I discovered that I was naive and everybody does not have the same perspectives. In other words, they helped me to expand and define my values. My days with them were a critical transformation period in my life. Although, I am in the middle of my youth, I can say that I openly enjoyed the joys of my youth and I have lovable and trustworthy companions with a great deal of personality. Our friendship will be forever.
Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 9/24/99