Perfect Opportunities

My Pen-Pal at Lewis and Clark

Now I am having a great time in America. My life in the Extension program is very stimulating. I have been able to learn a lot of things here. There are many opportunities to communicate with foreigners in English. It is a better situation than in Japan. Recently, I experienced three wonderful things which I didn’t experience in Japan.

First, I had an interesting time when I participated in river cleanup volunteering. It was a first time for me to join volunteering with Americans, so I was excited about it. I was surprised that the consciousness of people who volunteer was high. Many people participated in the volunteering such as families, little children, and groups of school students. They were very kind and worked hard. While I cleaned up around the Spokane River, I could communicate with Americans a little bit. It was a nice opportunity to get to know local residents. For these reasons, I had a good time at the volunteering.

Second, I was impressed by the Goal Setting Guest Day. I often make small goals for daily life, but now I don’t have any definite final goals yet. The opinions from guests influenced my mind. I realized how necessary it is to make goal again. Also, I learned two important points for my own goal. One of them is to enjoy achieving my goal. If we can enjoy it, we keep doing effort for our dream. The other one is to appreciate people around me. There are a lot of people who support my goal. I noticed that my goal is not only mine but also theirs. Recently I think about my future better than before. I want to find best final goal for me in America.

My Extension Group12 Members at SIDS Run

Third, I enjoyed the time with my pen-pal at Lewis and Clark High School. Last semester, I didn’t have a high school pen-pal student, so I was looking forward to meeting him. He can speak and write Japanese a little bit because he studies Japanese. His father is Japanese, but he doesn’t speak Japanese. In addition to that, his grandparents and uncle live in Tokyo in Japan. I enjoyed communicating with him in both English and Japanese. I was happy to talk about Japan and America with him. This experience was a good opportunity to think about each other’s country in two languages.

While I am living in America, I can have a lot of chances to communicate with foreigners. I want to maximize the opportunities because I won’t have these wonderful situations in Japan. I will do my best in Extension program to improve my English. All in all, I have many admirable opportunities here.