The Return and Beyond

It’s been a month since I landed on American soil, and the Fall 2009 semester begins tomorrow.

The transition back into Western society has been intense. Living in Japan not only taught me about myself, since my return I realize the experience has allowed me to see Baltimore in a completely new light. I’m finally able to see the place I’ve spent my entire life as it is, for the first time. Studying abroad also gave me a renewed sense of creative vitality, the first thing I wanted to do after leaving BWI was to make work.

Looking back, I wish I had allowed myself to enjoy OUA more than I did. I’m a reserved person, I don’t base my reality on the need to placate others, and I missed a lot of Japan because I simply didn’t seek it out. Some words of advice: as a foreign resident ‘Japan’ won’t come you, you have go to it. I realize now that a lot of my anxieties and frustrations were frivolous and of my own design; and its unfortunate that I allowed the pervasive lack of communication to facilitate this. Regardless, I now view the experience as a positive one. If anything, the time gave me the opportunity to really understand me as an individual.

That’s a gift I view is worth all the aggravation in the world.