When I first enrolled at Ohio State as a Japanese major, I wasn’t even considering studying abroad. I wanted to take my required classes, finish my degree, and move on to the next bullet point on the long to-do list that I have for my life. But I have been so blessed with the array of people that a have surrounded me throughout this journey- advisors, teachers, and peers- who challenged me every day to take advantage of those special opportunities which don’t exist anywhere else.

Fast forward two years later and I’m sitting in my dorm room at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. The weather is getting warmer, and the cherry blossoms are at the end of their brief season. I’ve visited two world capitals, summited a mountain, taken classes with students from counties all over the world, translated all twenty-four chapters in my Japanese grammar textbook, and in true broke college student fashion; drowned myself in ramen. Although this time it’s authentic.

One of the unique features of Ohio State’s Japanese exchange program is that all of the universities involved have different strengths and approaches to curriculum. The University of Tsukuba gives its exchange students a great deal of freedom with how they wish to fill their schedule, and they also offer course options beyond those relating to Japanese language and culture. It also hosts a massive international student population, which includes both exchange students and regular degree-seeking students. This is all essentially to say that even though Tsukuba may be a smaller, and less well-known city than Tokyo or Sapporo, there are ample chances to learn more about the world than just Japan.

During the first couple of weeks of my study abroad, it felt like everything was going wrong. One of my suitcases didn’t make it, I was inundated with official paperwork written entirely in Japanese, and even with GPS it can be challenging to navigate in Japan. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the scale of my undertaking, and my confidence in my language skills was waning. There was so much that I didn’t know. So much I still don’t know. Studying in Japan forces you to look directly into the gray matter.

That being said, after finishing my first full semester abroad I can already see improvement. The language program at the University of Tsukuba works differently than the one at OSU, and as a result I’ve been able to develop some of my skills which were previously lacking. Living in the country also means you’re forced to use Japanese every single day, even outside of class. Over time you start to develop a sort of emotional callus when it comes to making stupid mistakes and only then do you really begin recognize your growth.

Of course recent months have turned the world upside down, and along with that the spring semester of my program has undergone changes. The response of the Japanese public to the coronavirus has been mixed. The Prime Minister has been criticized by some for not calling a state of emergency sooner, and still others find the school and event hall closures to be an unwelcome encumbrance.

Certainly, these are far from ideal circumstances for me to be far from home. There are many who desire for me to return to the U.S. and I understand their reasoning.  But I made a commitment to this program and to myself, and unless the University of Tsukuba cancels their program altogether, I am determined to extract every ounce of life experience possible out of this opportunity.

Studying abroad has been an education in language, in independence, and in exploration. There is always something new to learn or accomplish. I feel as though I’ve been tested in a hundred different ways, and every challenge that I rise to is one that brings me closer to the future that I hope to create for myself.