It is 8 years ago when I was making a trip on foot from Tokyo to Kyoto, about 600km in 20 days. At the moment I was not belonging to any company nor institution but was about to fly to France to study there.
Now I am here in Tokyo again, after 2 years of study in France, 1 year job-seeking in Europe, 4 years work in Latin-America based in Panama, half-year hard quarantine life in Panama and half-year semi-quarantine life in Japan. At this moment I am again not belonging to any company nor institution, but I am about to be a part of a Japanese company, from tomorrow, February 1st.
The company’s headquarter is located in Tokyo where I’ll have a desk (although the most work will be done remotely until the situation gets better). The main business may be summarized to “improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public transport service operations in the affiliated companies”. Also the company is at the starting point of international businesses, to which I will definitely contribute largely, I mean, I try!
I’m on a path that I never expected a year ago. Of course there was a non-negligible influence by the Covid-19, but it is myself who decided to be here. One of the phrases that I called back was “Life is an adventure” from an TV series that I happened to see when I was temporary back from France in 2015. Yes, life is an adventure that is fully unpredictable, I must enjoy the unpredictability and the adventure!
Before entering the next stage, I would love to note what I obtained in this 8 years of journey, mainly in France and in Panama. I summarize them into 3 points.
1. Knowledge and experiences
I studied transport and sustainable development in France, which enabled me to understand the overall picture of the sector and also the approaches for the future.
I did a half-year internship in a car manufacture in France, and I worked for 4 years as a specialist in a consulting firm in Panama. The two companies allowed me to be in a fully international working environment where each colleague had completely different way of business and of life.
I could visit 24 countries that I had never been before, ones for business, ones for job-hunting, ones for sightseeing, etc.
I could learn French and Spanish languages. Unfortunately my French level degraded much with the time went and now I worry if the same happens on my Spanish, but at least I have DELF-B2 and DELE-B2 certifications that protect me! (I surely took PDF of them and stored the files in various devices!)
2. Friends and networks
This is inexpressible. Now I have very many friends, surely in France and in Panama but also of course in many other countries over the world, and this really delights me. Truly inexpressible.
3. Self-renewal
I have been myself since 36 years and will always be so until the end of my adventure. But the identity might have been changed a little bit through this 8 years of journey. I evaluate myself in the past to be “a person on an expected track” who might go fast or slow, but on a certain track. Now I may define myself to be “a person off track” who sometimes run, turn, jump and even sleep. This sort might make difference or ruin itself on nothing. I would try to be so, and hope to be a one who achieve something.
At the end, I clarify that I have no plan to finish being in international field. I might stay away from it for a while but expect to be involved deeply in the development of international business of the company. And the future… who knows what?
Life is an adventure.
Learning and travelling! Thanks for sharing. I travelled a lot earlier in life, now I am making my way travelling the internet :)) so much to learn