みなそんこんにちは！
なんか照れ臭くて拙い英語…とうふです！

The reason why I got into the US college was that I wanted to find what I wanted to do. I know it sounds ambiguous. Isn’t it? I had a hard time here because, until I graduated with an associate degree, I had no idea what I wanted to do. A big struggle. At that time, I hated myself because I felt like I was wasting time at school for nothing. An undecided future path. Classmates around me seemed very confident in their fields.

Felt like losing.

I visited the counselor many times, talking about my struggles since I blamed my decision to study abroad.

I thought about my path over and over and… over…

I had no way to resolve this dilemma. Crying never healed. Upsetting never satisfied. I was suggested by some people to have a STEM major and I was almost taking that idea. One day, someone said “Is getting a STEM major your desire?”  At that time, I realized that I was almost losing myself. I had an idea of graduating with an associate degree once and then coming back to college in the future time. I felt incomplete with graduating with an associate degree because my goal was to get a bachelor’s degree.

I ended up having a gap year using a program of Optional Practical Training.
This was my decision.
At that time, I didn’t even have an offer from companies. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. Nevertheless, I believe that it would be the best way to think about my future path.

One day, when I was waiting for a work permit, out of the blue, I found a job application that said “Japanese Medical Interpreter” on LinkedIn. The description of the job was interesting. I was even surprised that I found something that made me feel excited.

DESTINY!

For real.
I got an offer!

I vividly remember how much I was excited at that time. And now, I work as a medical interpreter.
"Medical interpreter”
A year ago, I didn’t even consider this job. However, as soon as I got an offer, I appreciated my decision to have a gap year to have a full-time job to see what I really wanted to seek for my career path. This is because I finally found something that makes me feel passionate about.

While working on this medical translation job, I was even able to find out what I wanted to study: the field of Social Work. Being able to work with medical providers and non-English speakers is not easy, even though the medical system here in the U.S. is quite different from Japan. So many things to learn, most of them are NEW to me.

Do I like it? YES, I do.

And I strongly want to improve this skill. Helping someone who needs language help is hard sometimes, but it’s more than that.

THANK YOU for my decision!
THANK YOU for my optimisticness!
THANK YOU for my curiosity!

また次回！