Wow, it’s been years since I properly wrote a post here…
Time to sum up what’s happened in the past 3-4 years.
2015
I had stopped posting after getting into a serious accident back in June. I had got hit by a car in Tokyo and the whole incident was pretty severe. I was basically out of commission for half a year. I lost a lot of motivation to do any extra-curriculars, including writing here. I did a few small posts after the incident but couldn’t find the motivation to continue after a while. The accident happened at the end of my third year in Uni, which in Japan is a pretty important time for you.
Year 3 is usually the year that students spend the entire year job hunting or applying to graduate school. I was about to start exams soon when the entire incident occurred, and it just drained me entirely by the time I was done with it. I managed to make it through the academic year, took a short holiday abroad before starting my final year at Ritsumeikan.
My best friend from the U.S. moved to Southern Japan in 2014 and it helped to have her around when I was recovering from the accident and just with the stresses of my final year of Uni. I took a couple of trips to visit her and her family each year and it was always a blast.
Upon entering my fourth year, I took only a few remaining classes. Ritsumeikan has a fixed tuition for the entire year/semester, regardless of how many credits you take. I took roughly 90% of all courses offered in my entire department/college by the end of Year 3 and only had a limited selection to take in Year 4. I had completed all graduation requirements during my 3rd year, but Rits doesn’t allow for early graduation unless you pre-qualified by the end of Year 1/start of Year 2, which I just barley missed. So…I was stuck for all four years—which ended up working out well with me overall.
I started applying to various graduate programs, which seemed almost like a full-time job. I primarily focused on schools in the U.K., but also a few programs in the U.S., Japan, Canada, and in the E.U. My top choice was in the U.S., but I ultimately got waitlisted there unfortunately. I applied to a lot of programs in order to have plenty of safety nets and got into nearly all the schools I applied to.
I wanted to go to a grad school outside of Japan primarily because I wanted to balance out my educational background/record with both an Eastern and Western perspective. It’s hard to properly describe how different the systems are without experiencing it yourself. While each have their similarities, the overall education systems between the West/East varying depending on the region and the societal values embedded into the culture. With my expertise being primarily in Japan Relations, primarily in U.S.-Japan Relations, and Diplomacy, it was vital for me personally to experience the different education systems.
Stay tuned for more updates on what I’ve been up to these past few years!
This is it. This is the final stretch.
Check out my Year in Review 2016 here.
Capture The World 