Through these blogposts, my goal was to show and express my time in Japan, including things that I have noticed or come to understand about the country and myself using words. However, as I reflect over these past few months there are many things that are hard to explain. It is always difficult to explain how your life has been impacted through living in another country, I can only hope that my actions display everything that I have learned. Japan was and is incredible and will forever be etched in my memory and in my life. There are not many people who can say that they have done the things that I have done, but hopefully my experience will give others a new perspective on what it means to be a world traveler and what a world traveler looks like. A black female. Me.
When I was sixteen and a sophomore in high school, I wrote a letter to my future self five years out and recently received it in the mail before l left the country. It was extremely interesting to hear and visualize myself just only five years ago. In the summer of 2014, I actually embarked on my first ever trip outside of the country. I was going on a two-week excursion through Spain, France, and Italy and did not know how much it would influence me. I was able to see the things that I had been learning about in my AP European History class and was super geeked out about it. In the letter I expressed how I hoped that my next travel destination would be Germany. After five years, I still have not made it to Germany, but would have never guessed Japan.
Life can hold many unexpected twists and turns. And my study abroad trip was one of them. It challenged me like never before and tested my capacity to handle life in a foreign country, but I’m here to say that I survived and loved every part of it. Since I have returned to the states, many people have asked me “Gabbie, where are you going next?” And the truth is, I have no idea. My goal is to visit every continent on the earth and I have a pretty good start, but I’m truly taking in the wandering spirit and just be led wherever the wind blows. I definitely had the time of my life in Japan, so it is not Sayoonara and goodbye for me but rather Itterasshai because I will see you later.
