I grew up knowing my family's house in Port Angeles as home. Port Angeles is located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It is about a two and a half hour drive from Seattle.
Living just a stones through away from the ocean I was used to gazing out at the waves and listening to them crash on the shore as I fell asleep. I am glad my father chose to live in the house I know as home.
School
Just like any child I was scared my first day at school. I quickly adjusted and enjoyed learning about some subjects. I never did much like reading, but math was wonderful. My teachers would tell my mother, a teacher at the same school, how mature I was for my age. Mature or not, I know I was quiet. I got good marks, but not amazing ones. All said, I enjoyed elementary school.
Friends
I was not very social. Still, I had some close friends and some other friends that I played soccer with that would come to birthday parties. I would say I was a normal child who was shy and a bit timid.
Early Teens
Cats
My first cat experience was when I was half a year old. Even as a baby I was a cat person. I didn't realize how much of a cat person I was until middle school. With three cats in the house I always had a cat on my bed. If I was lucky I would get two of them to sleep on the bed with me. Sometime in middle school I tried teaching one of my cats the abc's. I think I gave up after the third day on letter 'g'.
Running
I started running after school with a club in middle school. I am not completely sure why I started, but I think I kept doing it because I wanted to be able to run faster. I kept running and found myself competing in school meets in the coming years. I still enjoy jogging, although I go shorter distances now.
Hobbies
In middle school I started most of the hobbies I still continue today. At the time I thought computers would be my future job. No, they are a hobby I enjoy and little else now. I still roleplay with pen and paper when possible.
High School
Studies
Grades I recieved strongly indicated my strength in science and a weakness in literature. Keeping my grades up took some effort, but I spent a lot of time with friends and on my hobbies. I made studying math, science, and computers my priority. Foreign language, a requirement for most colleges, remained untouched.
Self Discovery
While in my senior year of high school I found out many things about myself that still remain true. Most people go through a similar period, however, I feel like I owe much of who I am now to one particular teacher I had. I felt like I changed each day I went to his class. One of the discoveries that made my senior year much more enjoyable was that I did not enjoy competing. So, I stopped running for the school and continued running for myself.
Anime （アニメ）
My first memories of TV are of watching transformers. I really liked the Robotech movies and I absolutely loved Naussica. That was all when I was quite young. In middle school and high school I began to buy tapes and then DVD's. My collection eventually grew to a few shelfs of my bookcase. I grew to like the subtitled versions more and more. I was hooked. I still am.
College
Physics
I began college at my local two year comunity college. The physics professor there showed me how practical physics, and science in general, can be. I started my physics education that year and the enthusiasm Professor Crawford gave me carried me through to my second major.
Japan
No language credits meant no four-year degree. I could take classes at the comunity college and forget what I learned of the language within a year, or... I could go live in another country where I would not speak the language for a while, perhaps a year. I chose to live in Japan for a year and go to the most intensive language school I could find. I learned a lot of Japanese. And I am happy to be able to say I still speak, read, and sort of write Japanese pretty well. A year later I came back again with the intent of learning much more. The program, and I, did not live upto my expectations. Yet, I learned about Japanese culture and I had a good time. When I left, I knew I would try to get back somehow, to live in Japan again.
Colleges
In total I took college classes for six years. I changed where I was studying almost every year. I began studying at our local college while still in high school. The year after that I had graduated from high school and was going to the local college for all of my basic courses. Next, I chose to pursue further education in Japan. While in Japan I applied and decided to go next to a small college in IL. Next, I utilized a program to study at Waseda University for a year. After that I returned to the small college in IL to finish my physics degree.
By the end of my college career I had been at four different institutions of higher learning over the course of six years. I graduated with a double major in Japanese language and physics. I learned many things. I matured and grew more independent.