Six months, almost exactly. We landed around 5 PM on July 24th and made it out of customs and to baggage claim and into the custody of the waiting JET volunteers around 6 PM, and we were probably on our way to the Keio Plaza around now. (Yeah, I’m a nerd and like being really precise about my anniversaries.)
Half a year’s gone by. Half a year. I really should do some kind of “what have I learned?” retrospective, so I can look back in another 6 months and see how much has changed.
Recontracting is the biggest and most life-impacting decision with the most uncertainty to it that I’ve ever made. (Well, I guess coming to Japan itself was a huge and uncertain decision as well, but I was more excited than anything else–not counting the pre-departure full-blown panic, but I just sort of shoved through it and made it work somehow, or I wouldn’t be here right now.) The prospect of planning all these classes for another year and a half, instead of just another 6 months, really makes me nervous–I’m not good at it and I really feel like it’s sheer luck that makes some of these classes succeed. Maybe I’ll learn the trick with time.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Six months. Whew. I really don’t know where I thought I’d be at this point when I was leaving for Japan–a couple of years ago I never, ever would have expected to be here–but I don’t think I really could have had any clue, you know? This is unlike anything else I’ve ever done, and I’m kind of in a daze that I’ve actually made it this far. To consider everything this entails…when you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, because it’s just your life and your routine, but at the same time, it’s all kind of dizzying and overwhelming.