The Final Countdown: 3 weeks till the end… of the Beginning

    As June comes to an end and millions of Canadians get ready to celebrate Canada Day on July 1st, reality has begun to really sink in for me. The next 3 weeks are a time to come to terms with the culmination of the incredible five-year-journey that has changed, moulded, and helped define the rest of my life. There’s no doubt about it, applying to the JET Programme and moving to Japan has been THE most significant decision I’ve ever made, and as this chapter begins to close, I look ahead to making another dream a reality. 

   All across Japan, there are a few hundred (perhaps a little over a thousand) other ALTs who are also in the same boat. The only difference is that most of them are getting ready to say sayonara and “break up with Japan” to head back to their respective countries, while I’m getting ready to extend my stay here by launching my own business and helping this city and its surrounding communities in the best way I can. 

   It seems worth noting that ten years have passed since I graduated from Vancouver College high school. I remember sitting in one of my classes writing an assignment about where we saw ourselves “ten years from now”. While I may not remember exactly what I wrote then, I do remember mentioning that I simply wanted to “follow the signs” and enjoy the journey without any particular destination set in mind. I was concerned with first-hand- experiences, with seeing more of the world and gaining a deeper understanding - the type you can’t get from traveling or reading books alone. In short, I wanted to make sure to leave the safe harbour behind, and venture out into the unknown. 

   Somehow, those signs led me to 日本, and although I now feel ready to turn the page after five years working as a “public-servant” here, I feel grateful for having had the chance to experience what it feels like to question what I thought I knew, to humble myself, and more importantly, to help me realize just how much more there is to learn. 

I cannot think of a better way to have spent most of my 20s, and as I look ahead I feel confident that this experience will continue revealing new ways to grow and enjoy life just as I had pictured it ten years earlier. 

Time to finish off this chapter in a strong note and look forward to my next decade in the Land of the Rising Sun. 

Countdown mode. 

PS - I'd like to thank you for showing interest and reading all the posts that have helped me document how my life has changed over the last five years here. It's been exciting for me to be able to share part of this journey with people from so many diverse countries and cities. I hope one day I get the chance to visit all of those places in order to experience first-hand a part of the wonder that each place has to offer. Although 13,000+ page views don't seem like much in the grand scale of things, it certainly has helped me see how connected we all really are. At the end of the day, we are all in it together; we are all part of the same crew.

 ¡Muchas gracias!