I want to give a big shout-out to the JET Program. Over in
Japan, I was living high on the hog, making more than I ever had in my entire
life, teaching only a few classes a day, traveling around the country several
times a month, riding my environmentally-friendly bicycle all over town, and
holding onto a social calendar so packed that I ended up turning down more
invitations than I accepted. It was a great way to live out the last two years
of my 20s and I am infinitely grateful to have had that experience.
Fast forward to USA 2012: my full-time and part-time jobs combined don’t give me even near what I
got from Ojisan Sa-mu, even though I’m teaching twice as much (26 hours of
instruction time a week). I teach a morning class at the Wake County Detention
Center, an afternoon ESL class in the dot-on-the-map town of Wendell, and a
night class twice a week in southwest Raleigh. Before I moved into the city
limits, I was living with a friend 20 miles outside of Raleigh and driving near
about 100 miles a day. I’d have to fill up my gas tank three times a week. I
look at the 8,000 miles I’ve driven since August and think, so much for environmentally-friendly living,
huh?
But, surprisingly enough, I am immensely satisfied with my life
right now. I feel, for the first time in my life, like a real adult. Despite the fact that I was
married for four years and lived alone in Japan for two, I still felt vaguely
like an imposter. Like I wasn’t really a grown-up. This time, though, I feel
fully in control of my life, and happy about it. I’ve moved into a trendy new
apartment by myself, I’m meeting new and fun people, I’m back in
touch with my family on both sides, the wealth of wonderful friends I have in Greensboro
haven’t forgotten about me, and I’ve got Target, Harris Teeter, Costco, Starbucks, two interstates, a
fantastic library, and a park all within a five-mile radius of my house.
I haven’t lived by myself in the U.S. since 2004, when I
graduated from college. Luckily, where I live now is a far cry from the cramped
studio apartment I had on Mendenhall Street, and even more different than my tatami-matted place at 803-5 Munadaka-machi, but it’s still a strange feeling to be
on my own again after all this time. My furniture at present only includes two desks, a bookshelf (that my kind upstairs neighbor put together for me), one living room chair, and a mattress on the floor. A kitchen table, couch, TV, dresser, and all those other necessary accoutrements will have to come later. After my next paycheck.
In the meantime, you'll find me eating dinner on a tablecloth on the dining room floor, preparing for my many classes, and enjoying the feeling of settling down to another adventure back at home.
