After having selected as a candidate, I needed to go to the university six days in a week. (I have classes on Saturday.)

The university has 2 campuses in Osaka and I needed to shuttle between them and time passed very...fast.

The class for the candidates was more difficult than I had expected. There are technical terms on the textbook and the tests were crazy difficult and I got very low scores several times, so I thought...,

"I may fail the class and can't go to America...
I need to tackle this matter...."

After my consideration, I decided to show my sincere attitude toward the study, to be concrete, I made a rule to express my opinion "at least 1 time" during the class. By doing so, I can make the professor notice my existance in the class, which will move his mind.

I am sure my test scores were awful, but I managed to pass the class and were selected as a candidate formally and the university dispatched me in Washington State University as an exchange student in March, 2009.

I let my parents know about the studying abroad program when I needed to attend the class for the other campus.

I am from an ordinary family, becides I studied at private university, which means my parents paid a lot of money as tuition and they can't afford to pay more money for the program, I thought.

However, my father said to me,

"If you have a chance to study abroad, go to America to realize your dream."

My mother said to me,

"I had never expected this day."

Before I went to America, my father invited me to Izakaya (tavern) and this was my first time to visit Izakaya with him, which made me a little nervous.

While talking with him, I found it very tough and challenging to work for the same company for more than 40 years. In addition, he always needed to make his family smile... Thanks to his great efforts (of course, my mother's great efforts as well), I concentrated on studying at the university.
For the above reason, I made it a rule to choose the option not to regret and learn things at the university.

At the end of the party with him, he said one thing to me and his words has been tattooed on my mind.

"If difficulties makes you traumatized, you can go back to our house anytime."

..., which made me almost cried.

As you already know, participating in studying abroad program requires a lot of money. For me, the university will pay all of the tuition required for studying abroad, however, that still need some money for the dorm, food, the flight ticket to America..., which costs about 1 million to 2 million yen. (I utilized my
He knows the total amount that he need to pay to go to America.

What he said to me means he acknowledged my efforts and the two hours we spent together at the cozy tavern has made us closer like never before.

… thanks to English.