I went to university in my home country in Europe. At first, I just wanted to pursue my passion, which was the Japanese language. I had no future plans whatsoever. While writing the thesis for my bachelor’s degree, I was asked to help out the university staff with teaching some seminars. That in turn made me realize that I love working with people, that I love teaching and that becoming a Japanese teacher would simply give me the best of both worlds. That realization led me to applying for a university in Japan, where I did my master’s degree in education. Also because the prefect at the university in my country told me that a degree in education from Japan would make me eligible for a full time contract as a Japanese teacher. After returning to my country, I learned that my government had implemented a policy that made it impossible for me to get hired as an adjunct (a teacher that only teaches and whose contract doesn’t require them to produce a certain amount of papers per year). I had no intentions of becoming a researcher, even part time, so I gave up on becoming a Japanese teacher.

Looking back at my choices, even though I do something completely unrelated today (probation officer and case worker), I regret nothing. Going to college connected me with the world. It made me academically smarter, emotionally more intelligent and it opened up my eyes to my ignorance and made me humble.