Now, a seed

"Happy" (an El Paso, Texas, USA version)

Changes for the better. Improve yourself! 変化事が良い事です。向上心を持ってください。

— Johnny Mendoza Govea (@JohnnyInJapan) March 25, 2014

Several feelings are flooding through me right now at this junction of Japanese academic years. This is the time when those of us left behind on the N.E.T. (Native English Teacher) program in Kurashiki must rotate and ameliorate schools we’ve never been assigned to before. It’s a time for training and re-engaging ourselves in the details of our day-to-day work. We need to harness our potentials to evolve even more as teachers.

It is also the time for goodbyes and well-wishing to those colleagues who have left, to our fellow Japanese teachers and, especially, to our students, though in a hushed way, until the transfers are made official by our principals’ announcements. Proper farewells take delicate, sincere effort and consideration. I’m focused at the moment on giving a good farewell speech to my fellow Japanese teachers in Japanese. English patterns of feeling are weaving in my mind as I type this entry. It’s so hard to say goodbye.

Yet, “hello” will soon follow. I will meet new teaching staffs at the newly assigned schools. I will begin to engage with basic communication with new students. And I will also start a new part-time job on the side teaching infants and toddlers through creative play. I’m going to be a pretty busy guy on top of my unshakable bonds to my wifey and to Lilica. It’s for the family that I’m going to hard so hard and for me so as to continue to grow professionally as well.

A slight sense of regret fizzes amid this bubbling caldron of emotion. If only that ONE JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) had opened up more or if only I could have done something differently to get her to participate in team teaching, what an accomplishment that would have been. I guess sometimes things don’t always turn out as you plan them. I did try very hard, I think, to get a good vibe going during the lessons. But it’s better to think that sometimes personalities don’t quite click well enough to be dynamic and flourishing as a team. Ah, well.