Believe In What You Have

Sometimes I wind up comparing myself to others or wish that I were a better form of myself. I’ve had asthma my entire life, and it really has put a limit on how I perform, especially with sports. Another thing that ignites this envy of mine can be talent shows (I think that talent shows are phenomenal, but sometimes I find myself at the peak of these thoughts here.) I start to wish that I were “better” and to think that people will find me uncool. Here’s a list of some of the things I think of sometimes now and when they started:

Why can’t I be a faster runner? (High School)

Why can’t I be taller and stronger? (High School)

Why can’t I be a better dancer? (College)

Why can’t I play an instrument?

Why don’t I look muscular?

I believe, however, that this way of thinking is very detrimental for your journey. It creates an opening for negative thoughts and prevents you from growing. It’s too easy to become envious of others and forget what you already have. Maybe you’re not the best athlete or student, but everyone has a gift and can work on that gift to help them become someone unique. You need to start saying, “How can I…” which will incentivize you to try and improve what you’re already good at. I may not be the best or even that great at anything, but I know deep down that I’m pretty decent at those things.

So don’t worry about what others have and what you don’t, and make sure to work on what you do have and harness those skills. And without a doubt, there’s someone out there that thinks you’re the coolest person in the world.

Embrace Spontaneity (Thoughts While Subbing)

As I was subbing for the middle school science teacher my first initial thought was, I might get to do some actual teaching (and luckily I did!)

The teacher had asked me to do a lesson on the respiratory system, and I was provided some slides to go over with the class. It finally came to class, and I was going along with the lesson plan–Kids were reading some of slides; we were all having a good time and working well with each other–when all of a sudden I look up at the clock after finishing the work sheet, and boom I still have 30 minutes left.

I didn’t want the class to know that there wasn’t any material left from the main teacher, and I knew I had to stay calm, so I began to think quickly on the spot. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “I can teach them something else about the respiratory system. I have asthma!” And with that I was able to go into an in depth conversation on not only the overall workings of the respiratory system, but also what happens when you have asthma and how your body works differently. Luckily the kids had several questions, so it turned into a really great lesson.

I think spontaneity can be a great part of ones journey. Not is quick thinking good for jobs, it can also be nice to call up loved ones randomly and say, “Hey, let’s go on an adventure.” I’ve suggested this in one of my blog posts before, but just walking down random streets while traveling can be some of the most fun parts of the trip, for you never know what you’ll find! I believe that it is always nice to have some sort of structured plan, but sometimes opportunities in life call for us to be a little spontaneous, so follow your heart and mind and keep living your journey.

Lessons From Traveling – Japan 002: Don’t fear the Batsu ばつ

In my second post on my experiences in Japan I want to talk about the acceptance of being wrong and how you can embrace it in order to help you along your journey. This will be a pretty lengthy post, so feel free to skip around. 🙂

For me personally I’ve always struggled with perfectionism and was always afraid of messing up or doing the wrong thing. My time in Japan, however, helped me with that fear.

When I got to Japan I was thrown into a world of non-English speaking family members and friends, so at first I was nervous about speaking in a different language. I knew that with my host family I could say something wrong and they would help me through it, but what about at school in front of strangers? Will it become a barrier to making friends? I would soon find out.

During orientation we were given two students from the university who gave us a small tour, and then they generously took us to our respective host family’s houses in order to show us the way. It was with these two students that my negative thoughts began to change. As a foreigner who had just started living in Japan for the first time I wasn’t quite used to the speed at which people talked, so at some parts of the conversation I didn’t quite understand what they were saying. Instead of just saying nothing and ignoring I asked them to repeat it a bit slower, or I just gave an answer in hopes it was the right one. Even if my answer had no relevance to what they were asking, they just repeated themselves and tried to make it easier for me to respond. This way everyone was working towards an understanding for all of us to comprehend. Therefore instead of trying to shy away from discussions, I highly recommend just plowing through and 頑張るing (Japanese-English hybrid of doing your best) because that’s how you’ll get the most out of your experience and language skills.

My two other experiences relating to overcoming fear of being wrong occurred while I was on a short vacation in Osaka with some of my study abroad friends. We arrived in Nanba around 5:00 PM, and we did a little bit of wandering around trying to see what we were near. After going in and out of shops, my favorite being Don Quixote, which is, in the wise words of my friend, “As if walmart and the dollar store had a baby and tried LSD, we finally got to the hostel around 11:00 PM. Our little adventure didn’t stop there, however, and we decided to do some more wandering. After we visited a couple of pubs it got to around 1:00 AM, and there was just about one thing on our American minds: FROZEN YOGURT. As we scrambled around desperately searching for frozen yogurt I saw in the window of McDonalds: try our pumpkin soft serve. I LOVE PUMPKIN ANYTHING. I marched in, walked up to the counter, and asked for some pumpkin soft serve. The lady looked at me with a curious face, as if to facially notify me that something was wrong, and if my fear of being wrong had kicked in I would’ve just left, but I held my ground and told her that I speak Japanese. In response to that she held up her arms in an X shape and I felt as if I had been hit with an X beam and was blown back. I still didn’t understand why she had given me a batsu, (maybe my Japanese was wrong) but after a little more give and take she explained that they had turned off the machine. My quest for pumpkin soft serve ended in sadness.

Our final batsu on that trip came when we were looking for my friend’s lost pocket wifi. After back tracking all of our rides we finally got to the roller coaster which had been our most recent ride we left. As we approached the gate where you exit the ride, the kind man quickly hit us with a batsu, but we didn’t let that stop us. We needed to ask about the pocket wifi. The man then happily told us to ask inside with lost and found, and surely enough, they had the pocket wifi! Imagine if we had instantly given into the fear of being wrong with the man; we would have turned our backs and may have never found out about lost and found.

I hope you found this entertaining and somewhat helpful! You should never be afraid of being wrong, and just go out and follow your heart.

Lessons From Traveling – Japan 001: Escaping the Comfort Zone

I hope everyone’s been having a great weekend! I really want to take my first steps in writing my entries about where i’ve travelled to and what i’ve learned from visiting those places. I really do think traveling is a way to help find yourself, so if you have any time to travel–even if it’s just an hour outside of where you live–going somewhere and isolating yourself from your habitual lifestyle can help you grow and find yourself.

One fear that comes along with traveling is moving outside of your comfort zone. It can be too easy to stay where you are solely for the reason that you are complacent with your current position and can’t be bothered to move too far away from it. It’s important that we travel to different places and experience new cultures, which is where my trip to Japan comes into play.

Always having travelled with my parents and my twin brother, I had never travelled alone before in my life. When it came to my third year at college, I had a choice to study abroad in Japan. Studying abroad in Japan had always been a dream of mine, and now it was becoming a reality. I had been planning for months prior to my program and trying to pick out touristy things for me to do during my time there. The one problem, however, was that my brother was not able to join me. I was going to travel to Japan. All alone.

I finally finished my Sophomore year of college, and that summer passed by pretty quickly; with me just thinking about Japan. Finally my departure day arrived. I packed my bags and got on my plane to Japan. The entire time I kept second guessing my decisions and wishing that my brother were there. I knew I was perfectly comfortable where I was staying at college, and I could’ve even just satisfied my course requirements from just staying on campus. If I had listened to those insecurities, however, I would’ve missed out on one of the best experiences i’ve ever had.

The trip to Japan was long and difficult, and at some points I just wanted to give up. My Japanese still wasn’t at its best, but with my speaking skills I was able to find all my connecting flights and buses. Even when I arrived to the hotel at 10 o’clock at night, I continued to hold my head up high. I also quickly learned that my host family could not speak a word of English. However, I never saw that as a negative but as a positive, for now I was able to really practice my Japanese and improve much quicker.

I made many friends and unforgettable memories and relationships from that experience, and if I had never stepped out of my comfort zone I would’ve missed all of that. I hope that after reading this you will feel more comfortable about being uncomfortable and pushing yourself to try new things!