The Night Before the JET interview

Here I am, the night before the big JET interview. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous. It’s safe to say that I’m prepared for this interview. I’ve studied up on geography, political structure, famous people, etc, etc. However, even though I feel prepared, I still haven’t thought of a good way of reasoning 1 thing: Why I want to go to Japan/why I want to get involved in JET. This journal entry will explore those two questions. Hopefully through my writing methodology, I will be able to express my answers.

First and foremost: “Why do you want to participate in JET/what made you decide to apply” type of question. I’ve been pondering this question ever since I applied in October. It’s not enough to say “Because I like the place”, but it really is just that, a feeling. It’s one of those feelings that you get when you know you truly believe in. Like when you see the right person, it’s just hard to put into words. Unfortunately, I cannot just say it’s a feeling to the panel.

The first time I heard of JET was during my first semester Japanese class over the summer of 02. Around this time, the idea of studying overseas was floating around my head. Every day I would walk through the building and see a poster promoting the university’s study abroad programs. My interest in Japan can come thanks to my very enthusiastic professor who always told stories, practices, traditions, and daily Japanese life. I think the reason of not being able to do study abroad is my lack of follow through. I always made up excuses or reasons not to go. Today, I’m steadily changing that, taking more pro-actions to my activities. If I didn’t, the JET program would’ve been another “thing to do” for next year.

More examples of me trying to improve myself is through work. Since it was a new position in the company, they were very open and lenient in what we could or couldn’t do. One thing I’m happy to say that I contributed to is the success to weekend classes. I’m good at planning or “envisioning” a project, but usually never follow through. This project reminded me of my effort, and it has been pretty successful. Even though some weekends people don’t show up, at least the plan is there for when people do.

Another attempt to better myself was the trip to Japan in October. This would definitely have been a “to do” for many years because of all the preparations. This year was different because I followed through.

So you can say me applying to JET was another attempt to follow through in my ambitions. However, I can’t say that was the only reason of applying. It took me the trip to Japan in October to fully realize that JET was something achievable, something possible. Jet has been on my mind for the past few years, but again, my weakness got the best of me. “It’s not my field”, “It’s too much effort”, “I can’t because I’m doing this and that”. There were a lot of little things that prevented me from applying. My trip to Japan help me realize the bigger picture, it was something I HAD to do. There have been too many times when I thought to myself “I wish I can go to Japan” “Oh, that’d be a nice place to go someday”. Something changed when I was there, I fell in love. As cheesy as it may sound, I immediately found myself loving every moment I was there. I know there’s a honeymoon phase to liking a place, over looking the awkwardness of situations as “cultural differences”, but there’s that something. I enjoyed the train rides, people watching, sight seeing, etc, etc. It wasn’t until the end of the trip when I thought to myself “I can see myself here”. This thought overpowered my excuses of not to apply, and here I am today, writing about my nervous wreck about the interview.