How must one be accepted to society? What if that society is outside of the country? Back in 2005, I was a 12 year old, shy child at the time. My brother, Alex, and I constantly get into fights for no apparent reason. Some fights were either verbal or sometimes physical. One time we were arguing about whose turn is it to vacuum the house and soon enough we were fighting physically. My Mom, she watches us fight making sure that it is not severe and she had no problem with us fighting and it didn’t bother her until that day. She had enough of us fighting, so she recommended us that one of us should live in Japan with our grandparents for a year. I took up on that offer and viewed it as an opportunity to start a fresh life there. A few months later, my mom got me a ticket to the Providence of Nagasaki and I was ready to go. I said good-bye to parents and to Alex, because I know I won’t have any trouble with him. On the way to Nagasaki, I got really excited. I was acting like a kid on Christmas day, despite the fact I had to sit on a plane for ten hours. Upon arrival, after grabbing my luggage, I was immediately introduced by my grandparents, my cousin Shinta, and his mom Kikuko. Thrilled to see them, I realized one thing, Japanese people don’t hug anybody at all unless you’re in a relationship, so instead they just waved and bowed their heads down and it was something I had to get use to. Shinta and Kikuko told me that I would attend to Kamigoto Junior High School and everybody over there was really looking forward to my attendance. I continued nodding my head due to the fact that I have trouble understanding Japanese and it took me awhile to understand what they where saying. At first, I felt like a rock star, many other people wanted to see me so that got me excited. A few weeks later, I started school and one huge difference I noticed was that everybody had to wear a uniform to a public school, along with that you had to greet every teacher that walks by you, unfortunately for me, I didn’t greet a teacher and they warned me that I need to for now on, if not, they will report me to the vice-principal. One of my classes started, I made it just in time. One major thing that every student did before any lecture was that they all bowed to the teacher, I didn’t know that, so I was the only one sitting down as everybody bowed. The instructor noticed me sitting down and told me I needed to do that from now on. After a few months of having trouble getting use to this big change, I started to notice how people were treating me. Whenever I asked one of my classmates a question, they always responded in a mean tone,. One of my teachers directly told me (note this was all translated and I still have trouble with my Japanese); “Hey, Tylor” “Yes sir?” “During our English lecture, try not to show off your English speaking ability to class.” “Why?” “You see, many of your classmates are jealous you.” “I overheard some of your classmates talking negatively about you, saying you’re getting special treatment from the other teachers.” “What did they say about me?” “You don’t want to know.” I lay off my English during lecture, but unfortunately for me, more people were picking on me and giving me a hard time, some would even grab me by the collar of my uniform and gave me death threats and telling me to go back to America. Soon, I felt isolated. No one could give me any guidance, any advice. I couldn’t talk to anyone, even my grandparents, because I’m still having trouble with my Japanese. I couldn’t call my parents because I didn’t want them to worry about me. I had to be self reliant and go through all this on my own. I was alone. I couldn’t bare this agony much more, to the point where I was about to consider suicide, but what would that make of me? If I were to kill myself, it’s only going to make my family worry. So, I decided go through with this agony until the end of the year. During the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everybody would make origami cranes. I decided to take part of this and ask one of my teachers to teach me how to make one. Mine was terrible compared it to my teachers and other classmates; after all it was my first time making a crane. The head was too big, the wings were uneven, and the body was just mess. After my poor excuse of a crane, a student that was younger then me said, “Your crane looks so terrible.” “Sorry, it’s first time” “Go back to America!” At that moment, I was filled with rage and anger. I decided to let all of my anger and agony out on this kid, so I grabbed the collar of his uniform pulled him up to my face and started shouting at him. After, I shouted at him, it just hit me; I’m just like the older students who picked on me. Fearing that I would end up like them, I quickly apologized to that student, but unfortunately he didn’t accept it. After awhile, I managed to make a few friends towards the rest of the school year, but most of them where younger students. The year had finally come to an end; it was time for me to go back to California. Before the day of my departure, everybody where giving me flowers and taking pictures of me, probably because teachers wanted every student to get involved. I left Nagasaki, relieved that I didn’t have to go through a living hell. Although I didn’t enjoy the experience, it made me a better person. I learned to never pick on anybody for any reason and I learned to become self-reliant. After another long flight back, my parents introduced me with a huge hug and Alex even gave a hug. After that, I could tell that we are going to get along easily……unfortunately we got into another fight, but it wasn’t too serious.
