[#15] About Me : Part5 (My Final Impression of Yale and New Haven)

Finally I came to Yale. Before leaving Japan, I decided three goals for spending six weeks in Yale.

1.    Improving English skills

2.    Widen my perspectives

3.    Knowing more about Yale

Did I achieve my goals? My answer is great, big, giant YES.

Firstly, I could become to be able to use English from my heart, not from my brain. My English still has a lot of problems, but at least when I talk to friends, teachers and someone I meet I can express my emotions. English words suddenly come to my mind and I can say those words with my true feelings.

I would like to thank everyone who gave me the opportunity to improve English, especially Carrie. Through her class I could get to know about “meaningful English.” She cherished every single word in stories and articles. Her attitude taught me the importance of subtleties in sounds of words. I could polish my sense of English by selecting words carefully every time. Thank you Carrie, thank you very much.

Secondly, I expected to know how “Japan” is seen from other countries. I rediscovered that Japan is pretty well known than I expected. I was really moved and proud of my own country. Such kind of feelings had never come to my mind.

Moreover, now I have many friends all over the world. I got my friends in my floor of our dorm, in classrooms, in dining hall and mostly in the game room. I’m looking forward the chances to go to their country, and also the day they visit Japan. I hope that someday we gather again in one table and play poker.

Thirdly, as I mentioned before, I was attached to Yale for its own sake because of the introduction video of Yale called “That’s why I chose Yale.”

In these 6 weeks, I could go to almost every area of Yale’s campus. Every single residential college was gorgeous and beautiful. Libraries were truly well designed and equipped. I went to many restaurants in New Haven though we could have every meal in dining hall. I enjoyed almost every thing in New Haven.

Now I’m sure that I will miss Yale and my friends just after riding on MTA North Line. The six weeks in New Haven became one of the most precious memories of my life. I would like to cherish every encounter I had here. I know that those encounters will make my life joyful. Thank you guys, see you again!

At the end, I would like to thank my dear father and mother. You are always kind, generous and warm. You always let me do and support anything I want to do. I love you two from the bottom of my heart. I can’t thank you enough.

[#14] About Me : Part4 (About My Academic Life)

When I entered my college, my interest was in chemistry. My class consisted of chemistry students, biology students, physics students, and also medical students.

In first and second years, we studied together not specially about our majors but about liberal arts. We could share our knowledge and also get  common ground. Those days are my precious memory.

In third year in my college, finally we were divided to our own faculties. I chose engineering, especially social engineering as my major. I was interested in treating society as "system" and solving the system with mathematical methods. However, unfortunately, as you know, I was far too busy to devote myself to studying because I was absorbed in dancing. So I have almost no memory of class rooms in those four years.

After graduating from college, I entered a graduate school of my college. This time my major was engineering again, but in fact my course was about business. I thought that learning only about engineering was not enough to do something interesting and exciting in real society in my future.

In graduate school, I changed my attitude completely and studied hard. Now I leave only one thesis for graduation, and I’m almost ready to start working. I’m so excited now!

However, there is still one thing that I must acquire. It is indispensable thing to do something big and exciting. That is an international way of thinking. I had no experience of living in other countries. That’s why I came to Yale.

(To be continued…)

[#13] About Me : Part3 (Dancing in My High School and My College)

When I was a member of the street dancing club in my high school, I got a chance to be a TV star.

A TV program focusing on school life of teenagers was interested in our high school, especially in our street dancing club. In every Thursday night, we were broadcasted to the whole country for about three months. In the program we danced a lot and battled against other schools. In those days we were pretty popular, and the presence of our club in my high school got increased. We felt like we were One Direction!

I was totally absorbed in dancing so I couldn’t study at all, and then, I screwed up my university entrance exam. Consequently, I had to spend another year after graduation for studying. This year was a gloomy nightmare. I was just a nerd and didn’t do anything but studying, eating, sleeping and studying.

After one year of torture, I entered my university and joined a street dancing club again. This time, our club was not only about street dancing, but also about theatrical acting too. In every December we had the biggest annual theatrical performance. Interestingly, our stage had no lines, and instead, we used dancing to explain every situations and emotions. Sounds difficult, isn’t it? The preparation took about half a year and our budget was quite big.

In the last year I assumed the role of the stage director, the most important one, but it was really tough business. Thousand of difficulties stroke me like finding the best music for each scenes, keeping consistency of the story, coming up with good stage setting and also considering about relationships between other members. Everyday I discussed much more than danced, and I couldn’t sleep soundly for six months because of incessant arguments.

When our stage came to a close, I cried my heart out in front of others after 17 years (This can be another funny story, I guess). That was one of the most joyful moments in my life. The black straw hat I wore in this moment became my lifetime treasure.

(To be continued...)

[#12] About Me : Part2 (About Graffiti)

In graffiti crew, we drew pictures on the wall with spray-can. Each of our canvas was so big, and it was like three meters by nine meters! Everyday we carried sketchbooks on us and worked on our plan. Each one of us had his own autograph, and practiced to write it with spray-can quickly and also beautifully. We could draw anything we wanted in any size. That was truly amazing and happy moment!

I had very good relationship with my parents. Don't worry!

But wait, graffiti is considered vandalism and crime! Was it legal? Don’t worry. We drew pictures on the sheets of plywood and put them on the wall of our school within the period of school festivals. How healthy and sensible we were!

One of my works. Like Harlem, isn't it?

However, our secret base was not so healthy. Our room was in the ground level of our school, and inside of our room there were thousands of colorful drawings written by our great predecessors on every single wall, and even on the ceiling and floor. It was just like Harlem in Manhattan! There were many pieces of furniture formerly abandoned in garbage dumps, and awful smell of mixture of paint thinner and molds filled the air. The atmosphere was terrible, but I loved that place. Still now, smell of thinner reminds me of my great memories of high school days.

(To be continued…)

[#11] About Me : Part 1 (About My Name and Piano)

Though belated, let me explain about myself.

My first name is Kazuma. Kazuma is written in Kanji like “一磨.”

“一” means One and “磨” means Enhance. My beloved parents named me like this hoping that I would have enhanced one thing that I’m really good at and I can be excited about.

However, actually, I was grown up just to the opposite direction. I mean, I have many kinds of interests.

I was the general of Ninja.

When I was five years old, I started to play piano. My mother brought me to a piano school and soon I became to like playing piano. At first, I practiced authentic, orthodox and classic style of piano, but later I became to realize the joy of playing more jazzy style, especially ragtime. Unfortunately I stopped to learn piano when I was eighteen, but still now sometimes I really enjoy playing those cheerful masterpieces composed by the king of ragtime, Scott Joplin.

Scott Joplin

As I mentioned before, in my junior and senior high school days I was a member of archery club. However, archery was not the only one thing I did in my high school. Also, I was a member of two different kinds of clubs. One was the graffiti crew and the other was the street dancing club.

(To be continued…)