Australia, My Home
Eight years since one ordinary plane carried my ordinary life across the ocean; I still remember tears rolling down my cheeks as the plane lifted off the runway at Narita Airport.
Everything was left behind: friends, the familiar sight of the city, my home. Thinking about starting my new life in a foreign country overwhelmed me with anxiety, rather than excitement.
Not long after my arrival in Australia, I started attending a local primary school. Normally a new student will be made stood in front of a classroom to introduce in Japan. Anxiety took over my mind to prepare for the moment, but the class commenced without me needing to introduce myself. As soon as the class was over, however, I was surrounded by my classmates who spoke to me in a language I could not understand.
My first thought is still vivid in my mind: “How do I start an English sentence? Would they be disappointed if they find out that I can’t understand them?” But everyone welcomed me. They were patient. They listened to me. They let me join in their groups. I knew that I was very lucky to have had met people like them, and they happened to be around when I was there.
I was faced with the same situation when I started high school, as I was the only student to enroll there from the primary school that I attended. Once again, everything started off well, just because of one friend that approached me, and the number of friends increased in no time. Since then, I grew up without having any troubles with people. I would not have been able to have such a great experience had my family not moved to Australia. I am currently studying to become a doctor, in hope to make as many people happy as I can.
Kierkegaard once said, “life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”