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Jess- Nami

Nami

This month I am helping prepare for the In Japan Midterm Meeting. It's an event for all the students that came to Japan from all over the world who are doing a year long homestay. It has been 3 months since they arrived and we want to check in with them and give them a little motivation. Yoshiko, Gotaro and I had a lengthy meeting talking about some issues that develop during this time and ways we can help the students overcome their homesickness, culture shock and language challenges. As we talked about this, of course, I offered up some suggestions and personal ideas about dealing with these difficulties. After the meeting I couldn't help but continue to think about culture adjustment and language acquisition.

During the meeting, some personal struggles, challenges and triumphs came rushing to the front of my consciousness. Although it is my job to be a mentor to the high school students throughout their stay, I am also going through a similar struggle. Although, I feel "genki" 80% of the time, I go through my own waves of emotions.

Home sickness: It's a natural part of the exchange process and I completely recognise this. I actually feel like I haven't experienced any severe homesickness yet since I am willing to allow myself to be meloncholy some days and not feel overly upset about it. The first month I was here, I missed my friends and family a lot and always thought of them throughout the day, felt like sending them email messages, letters, postcards, pictures...anything to share my experiences with them. I wished on some days that my friends could be here with me to witness the scene around me, or to go out together to have fun. But recently I realised that it makes no sense sitting here wishing people from home were here since that won't happen (with the exception of a few friends who will be visiting me). Besides, this is my chance to live in Japan, everyone will be in Boston and Maine when I get back, but i might not have a chance like this again. I think in order to overcome homesickness, one has to realise that their time in the new country is not forever, and that they should make the best of their situation in the present. I am trying to do this now and I think it has helped improve my mood when i:m feeling down. Afterall, it was my own ambition and skiill that got me here and I plan on using that same energy to make it through this year.

I hope the other highschool students will realise that the power to overcome their struggle lies within themselves. I think they will soon discover this, maybe not at the meeting but hopefully very soon. I wish them all the best in their endevors as we treck through this years' journey together.

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