Today I was co-teaching a class of what in America would be called "eighth graders" but are the second (of three) years at junior high in Japan. I reflected on the fact that at the same age in my hometown kids were dropping tabs, smoking bowls, and having kids, whereas here they play with Winnie the Pooh keychains and hold their friends' hands.
A while ago I wrote that these kids may be the cutest kids in the world. I still stand by that claim. Their cuteness lies not only in the physical, but in the mental and social as well. They are so well behaved, so kind to each other, and so positively minded. You may only get to see the photos I post here but meeting them, or better yet, teaching them is the only way to really understand what I mean.
Which brings me to something I wanted to put into my farewell speech: that for me to stay in this town would be a crime in that it would prevent someone else from experiencing the beauty and purity of the humanity that exists here. I am happy that someone else will get to live here; I don't think I will be ever so blessed again.
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In my last post I neglected to mention one of the major transitions that coming home will require. I will have to give up my social status and re-adapt to one that gives much less respect in America (being but a normal human). Here I am treated like an ambassador, like a "sensei," a foreign prince, and even in other towns where I am unknown I am appreciated just for the fact that I am different (even if some of the attention is unwanted or inconvenient). So I must climb down my temporary ladder of social praise and adapt to the old one where I am but a 23 year old Caucasian like so many others. The irony is that despite the shift in social status I am able to obtain a much more challlenging, meaningful job in my home country, so not all is lost....
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