After Japan, I lived in Buffalo, NY for a few years. I moved at the end of May, and from September, I attended 9th grade at a Catholic girl’s school. On the day of freshman orientation, the teachers emphasized how people were coming to this school from all sorts of places. “We even have someone…
Month: March 2017
The Quirky Hostel Manager (Pt. 3)
On the last day of the conference, a few fellow conference goers asked me about where I was staying. We were talking over lunch at an affordable Chinese place not too far from the fancy hotel that served as the conference venue. “It’s a hostel that’s filthy and smells like pot,” I responded. “And it’s…
Self-Awareness (So Easily Said and So Difficult to Actualize)
The most central part of my journey, and central to every sub-section of this blog series, is self-awareness. The first step was learning to know when I’m in a depressive phase. Believe it or not, I’d been having depressive phases for the better part of a decade before I learned to recognize them for what…
“Where Are You From?”: When I Became Japanese
In the third term of fourth grade, I was transferred out of public school and into a small private school. Everything changed. I was extremely culturally confused and had a temper that flared up at very inconvenient times and places that I myself couldn’t explain…and yet I made friends. I had had friends in public…