Live Your Life

By Sean

“If there's anything many people can agree on, it's that moving from the place you called home to a completely different area is always a scary thing to do.”

Sean: Walt Disney once said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” If there's anything many people can agree on, it's that moving from the place you called home, to a completely different area is always a scary thing to do, especially if it's from one country with their own rooted traditions and cultural beliefs, to another country with different customs and traditions of its own. This is what it was like for Akiko Martin when she moved from her birthplace of Matsuyama Japan, to the United States in California. She moved in order to receive a different education than what was offered in Japan, and she set out to attend UC Berkeley. However, when she got there, she was met with many challenges that affected her greatly. To start, when she arrived to the U.S., Akiko was already overwhelmed and needed time to adjust to her new environment, and to understand the customs of her new home.

Unfortunately, time was not on her side. As she had to deal with schoolwork, while getting used to her new surroundings.

Akiko: Once you get there, you just have to get, get on with the school. It's just, there's so many thing you have to do while you are still struggling to adjust or understand, what's going on. You know. So, that's another thing, I felt like being rushed, you know, I just don't have any time to have time… time to learn stuff. Yeah.

Sean: After college, Akiko experienced racial prejudice through several small interactions and experiences with different people within the U.S.

Akiko: So I was working, and, uh… somebody was, somebody… an American was interested in me. But then, he suddenly… cut contact and his roommate says, “Oh, because his father were in Hawaii, you know, the military. So his father told that guy that he cannot date Japanese person, you know, something like that.

Sean: Oh, I see.

Akiko: So it’s like, wow, I didn’t… Even Japan, we lost the war to Italy, United States, British and all those countries, we don't really say we cannot, right? I mean, we don't think about it that way. So it was quite shocking that however it’s a big thing that, you know.

Sean: On top of that, the more she lived in the U.S., the more Akiko started to experience cultural assimilation. Her culture and actions started to adapt to the American way.

Akiko: Funny, uh, example is that I go to Japanese restaurant, I order udon, which is noodle, right? Do I slurp or do I don't slurp? [laughs] Because we slurp in Japan, but in the United States you are not supposed to slurp. So which one is it? You know?

Sean: After all the assimilation she went through, and how much it had changed how she acted in her attitude with others, it became prevalent to Akiko that it impacted her cultural roots, as she had learned all these new customs and used them more than what she was originally taught growing up in Japan. This was noticed primarily by her family and whenever she came back to visit.

Akiko: Just going to grocery store. I, it was summer, so I was wearing half, you know, shorts and t-shirt, and then I was okay, I'm going to go grocery shopping.

My mother stopped me, says… “you cannot go out, like this!” and I have to be proper, you know? And here… sometimes, you know, I go flip flops and all that stuff, and that's fine, right? But, you know, just have to be everything proper in there.

Sean: However, despite all the challenges, despite all the changes Akiko went through, she didn't regret coming to the U.S. to live her life. She saw all the opportunities the U.S. provided a lot more for her than she possibly could've gotten if she stayed in Japan. She has firmly believed in this for herself and for her son, Michael.

Akiko: For example, when, ah, Obama became president, I thought, I'm so glad I'm in U.S., because I can't think of Japanese people electing, let’s say… a Malaysian, or Vietnamese or American or, you know, person as a prime minister. It will take another hundred years there. So, I felt like, oh my God, you know, here it's people more open-minded, more accepting the differences kind of stuff.

Sean: There’s a quote by a British writer, Vivian Green, who said, “life is not waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain.” Akiko took that step, and learned to dance in the rain. And she lives her life to the fullest. If you ever are scared about wanting to do something new, always tell yourself, there's a million reasons to not do something. But why not push yourself to discover new possibilities?