I’m not in Japan any longer. In fact, I’ve been home for nearly two weeks. My environment, my atmosphere, my world is completely different again. It feels good to be back. But I left no regrets across the sea, only my childhood.
Everything I did in Japan and in India, they were worth every penny, every tear. There’s nothing in the world that I could have done that was more worthwhile last spring than leaving all I know behind and going to live in a country of strangers who speak a strange and difficult language. I am better able to handle myself and the people around me, to communicate with the world, to see through the perspectives of others, to understand the lives of people outside of America, and to live as a citizen not of a city or a country, but of the world. And we all are, it’s just that some of us have yet to recognize it.
We live in an age in which things are coming together, becoming more interconnected. Some of us hate globalization and would fight it, but it should be recognized that some forces are simply larger than ourselves. A person cannot stand up against the face of a tsunami and expect it to turn back. Globalization is here and it’s real, and while some are being harmed by it, many more are gaining. I’m not saying that I approve of every little detail, that I’m some austere capitalist. I’m just saying, if you can’t fight the rising tide, help others to safety. Go out and see what there is to the world, understand it as well as you can, and say, well I like this, but I intend to make it my job to fix this. And then, do it.
And that’s the life I’ve chosen, because now I’ve seen what it’s like on the other side. It’s not for everyone. It’s not glamorous or profitable, but then, it’s not about the recognition either.
This isn’t an advertisement to all of you to go do exactly what I did, and come back thinking you want to do exactly what I want to do. This is my statement of what study abroad did for me. It changed me. It made me into a better person. It gave me a cause in life. If one person can find so much in only five months, imagine what it could do for any one of you.
During my last week in Japan, I drove to Osaka with a friend for what I imagine is the last time for a very long time. We spent the drive practicing the music we had made. We spent the next day in and out of studios and rehearsals. We spent even the following morning in agonizing prep work for the show, and I was terrified. I was shaking, I couldn’t eat, my notes kept going flat, I was losing my grip on the dance moves … I was so scared that I threw up before the show. But I told myself that if I couldn’t do this one small thing on this one insignificant day in history, even though I knew everything by heart, then I was never going to be able to do anything in the world.
So that night, I did it. We were the opening act to the boxing tournament, myself and two friends standing behind me.
Just one song, just one dance, and maybe eight hundred people watching whom I couldn’t even make out because of the brilliant spotlight trained on me. They had hired a professional film crew and were filming us for a music video. That was my debut. And I did it.
Six months ago, I would have failed.
So take that home and chew it, kids. If you were considering something like this in your future and you ever had a moment of doubt, I hope that my humble opinion on the matter may be of some help as you make your decision. Don’t consider the consequences of going. Consider the consequences of not going.
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