Jitters
Well, it has been a while since I've been to Japan, but I may be going back again. I was informed a few weeks ago about an English camp in Japan: Summer Camp USA. As you might guess by the name, counselors are selected to go over to Japan and participate in a mini full immersion program for Japanese students whose age ranges from Kindergarten to College.
I look at this as an excellent opportunity to see what the JET program would be like. The funny thing is that even three years ago I couldn't picture myself considering working in Japan for an extended period of time. Now, depending on how the Summer Camp USA program goes, I may be pursuing more study of teaching the English language as a secondary language. I still find the thought of being a teacher somewhat strange.
I have come to realize, after working on my tenure as a student (only a slight exaggeration), that the degree I have been pursuing the most actively may not be the right one for me. I am a Computer Science student, and aside from the market being extremely poor for Computer Science and Information Technologies, I find that the more CS courses I take, the less I care. My major is also part business, and I find discussion about factory-line production extremely boring, and never really saw myself going into business. Of course, this could also be the result of an extremely delayed case of senior slump as well, or just plain burn-out.
Having determined this, I've spent many a night wondering where I would be upon graduation, or what I would be doing. The one thing I noticed is that I have always enjoyed English, but never saw myself going into acting or anything like that. I also enjoyed Japanese quite a bit, and going to Japan, enough to consider doing a study abroad again after the summer camp.
To that end, I wrote an acquaintance in Japan who works at the Japanese college I attended in Japan, and inquired about doing study abroad in the fall, and possibly extending it to a year. The sheer fact that I couldn't sleep for a long while after sending the email because of the adrenaline rush clued me in that perhaps I was doing the right thing. I haven't been excited about a class in a long while, and I've been in school for 7 years now.
I'm still waiting to hear back about the study abroad program in the fall, and have a lot of research to do before then, such as seeking scholarships, loans, grants, and also looking into the possibility of being not just a JASIN (JApan Studies In Nagasaki) student, but perhaps being a student on a more permanent basis. Perhaps even going so far as trying to finish my English major in Japan, and pursue a Japanese minor.
Unfortunately, as has happened quite a few times in my life, I didn't consider this very far into the future, so the biggest hurdle will be trying to secure the finances to go. Even if I were to save everything from here on out, the summer camp starts in late June. I only started to consider the option of studying in Japan on a more long-term basis after talking with a Japanese friend of mine just the other day.
The future is a hard thing to predict.