Its easy to go someplace, but its harder to come back home. That’s what my interviewee Jon Self said as I asked him how hard was it for him to leave is home town, his friends and his family. Jon Self is 24 years old and he is my tutor that teaches me in a Community Club in Downtown Washington D.C. Ive known Jon for 2 years now and he is a really interesting person as he has something new to tell me everyday. Jon was born in a small town in Texas. Some people say that if you were born in a small town, you know everyone because you’ve went to the same Elementary School together, the same Middle School together, the same High School together and the same College, this was the situation for Jon. In Jon’s town you were either White or you were Black, so there wasn’t really any diversity in Jon’s town. Its almost like living in a bubble, Jon saw the world as a small place because he has really never went to anywhere else in the world.
In Jon’s second year of High School his school they had a scholarship for a student to go to Fukuoka, Japan. Jon applied for the scholarship because when he was really little he always read maps and he always wondered what it would be like in Japan. So of course Jon took up the opportunity to go to the place he always wanted to as a kid. Jon got the scholarship and when he broke the news to his parents, they weren’t all that happy. Jon wasn’t comfortable with leaving his family either but he wanted to go explore the world and not just live in Texas for all of his life. When Jon left for Japan, he brought two of his friends that were exchange students that spent a high school year in Texas. When Jon got to Japan he was in awe because he would have never imagined the world to be so big. Jon saw people that are in the same religion, a different race than him and he also say people who ate different food than him. So it was real hard for Jon to adapt to all of these things because he was taught differently.
Jon went to Japan to study Japanese culture, history, politics, intercultural communication and Japanese stage performances. For Jon being in Japan it was like being a child again because he had to be taught how to read Japanese, write Japanese, what to eat, etc. The toughest thing that Jon had to deal with in Japan was the food. Jon hated Sushi and he could not deal with eating raw fish. There were also foods that he had to eat that were really salty like Onigiri (a riceball). Some Onigiri had a pickle in the middle that was really salty and he had to eat that a lot so he adapted to eating salty food. Japanese people eat a lot of fish which is really healthy for them and it speeds up intellectual growth because fish has fatty acids also fish makes your eyesight better.. Even though an Asian diet has a lot of good things about it, it can be really bad for you. An Asian diet has a lot of salt in it and if your eat by an Asian diet, by the time you get older you might develop stomach cancer.
When Jon had come back he was a complete different person because he displayed characters that he did in Japan and he didn’t do what he usually did when he was at home. I couldn’t even imagine how hard it was for Jon to be coming from a small town in Texas to a big city in Japan. He finally overcame his struggle that was coming out of his shell and going to a place out of his comfort zone.
Japan 2005-Fukuoka
