Today, I am here with:

Taylor B!

Slash Sailor Moon, here in her most lovely of homes.

Because I would ask a very specific question. It's kind of been bothering me.

Basically, am I too old for school?

We only are wearing these because we just finished filming a video on Taylor's channel.

So there's a link below and you can check that out.

But I want to talk, just do some honest talk, about some things I've been feeling since I started school here.

So let's get that going now!

Hello, guys and welcome back.

We are eating some nacho cheese fries.

Nacho fries

Nacho fries

But today, more importantly, because we're on my channel, not yours

I wanted ask. I'm on MEXT scholarship now. You are a MEXT alumni.

Yes.

You have a grad degree.

Yep.

And you're awesome!

Thank you!

So one of the things that I noticed when I first started was basically that everyone in Japan is really young.

It was like my first day of class and everyone's doing their self introductions

And there's one guy who walks up and he's like: "I'm probably the oldest person in the room here."

"I'm 23."

"I'm 23." I was like, you baby!

You're a child!

Meanwhile, I'm in the back like:

There's this word called like "(8) Years-late-to-becoming-a-working-adult"

Yeah

Which is like, you're 8 years late to the graduation scene.

There are basically kind of like set ages where you're supposed to graduate and start looking for a job.

And the job searching process here in Japan is pretty set.

You're supposed to do certain things and interview in a certain way

Wear a certain type of interview Clothing and hopefully a daikigyo

a big corporate company will reach down and be like, "You're cool. Work with us forever."

We're taking you.

We're taking you into the fold!

One of us!

Meanwhile I'm the complete opposite, like, as Americans...

I know so many people who, they graduate, they start their job because they to pay off their student loans

Right

And then you go back to grad school

And you're like, "Wait, the job that I'm doing isn't exactly what I wanted.

It's just the one I was using to get money and now I need to specialize. I need to go back."

So I know that in America, it's ok to be older.

You're paying for your school in America.

And the way I see it is if you're gonna pay for grad school

Yeah

Don't do it until you know what you want.

But a lot of my friends who were in other fields like marketing or advertising or whatever

They took maybe like four or five years off and then went back.

But I think there's also protections in place

Like when you're job hunting, they're not allowed to ask in America how old you are.

And things like that. Here in Japan, when you give your resume, you have to attach a picture of yourself.

So there's no like hiding your age range.

It's like they can basically ask you anything that they want to ask you, right?

I mean, I don't know the law that well, but I feel like you're not as protected

in that sense as you are in America. Like it's more protection for the companies.

Yeah

They can ask whatever they want.

Yeah

Whereas in America, they can't ask your gender or your age or any of that stuff.

I know in Japan, a lot of people do immediately go in. If they're gonna go to grad school, they go immediately.

But at least at my specific school, like I was just at the Media Design School at Keio

I feel like it was a lot more liberal and so

They aimed to have

Different ages and different backgrounds and people from different cultures

Because it was part of the experience

So I wonder if it varies from grad school to grad school.

Yeah, and mine's like the school of business, so it's very, what's the word? Cookie cutter?

Yeah! So I want to ask you, why did you decide to go for your Master's in Japan?

Because they're paying for it.

Really?

That's the honest, really, the MEXT scholarship makes it free.

Right

And I remember, when I first graduated college, I originally was like

"Okay cool. I'm gonna get a Master's degree."

In East Asian studies cuz that's all I know about.

I was just like I think they need to get a Master's degree, so I'll go and try and get it.

And then I looked into it and was like, that's a lot of money, forget it! And I stopped.

But I knew I always wanted to do something in Japan because I did sales with Japanese companies

And I did like all these meetings. Answering "What's your real background with Japan?"

And every time it was just like...

Right

You'd have the impractical...

Right! Not the answer they were looking for, so now

I applied for this scholarship. I kind of wanted a reason to go back to Japan and because it's not just me

I wanted to have a legitimate reason to go back

and have something a bit more fortified

And because it's a free scholarship-, well I mean, it's full, right? So at this point...

I might as well.

And if it's a Japanese business degree, when I go into business meetings with Japanese people

Then I think it brings me closer to the playing field than where I was before

As much as like flying in, like "I'm a special foreigner! Treat me well!"

I feel like my experience is a little different than yours because I got into Keio

And I had a semester where I didn't have a scholarship

And I got it through the school. The school recommended me.

And then I was able to get the scholarship to pay for the rest of my school after that.

I don't know. I feel like that was a little different. The way I got it was a little different.

Because those are the two tracks.

Yeah, and I was already living here when I applied to Keio.

Yeah

Is it back on?

Yes

This is so good.

It's good, right? The cheese is good.

This is really good. Your nacho cheese is quite good.

I'm into it.

So I decided to go back to grad school because I wanted to get job that was kind of more towards my career.

I was just like, why do I feel so old though?

But I don't think you are.

It makes me think of, you know when you go to college, remember that one student

And you're like, "Bro, why you so old?"

I'm that student now!

You're not though.

Trust me.

And even if you are, I feel like it's something to be proud of.

Right

You decided to do this thing for yourself.

And that's the thing, I wouldn't have gone to grad school otherwise. I could not afford to.

I'm still paying for my undergraduate degree.

Yeah, me too.

While I'm going to grad school.

I definitely believe you should do what you wanna do. Live your life. Be strong. Be you.

But then at the same time, I'm like,

I think people think that college is kind of "atarimae" like it's just obvious that you should go to college.

And maybe in other countries it is because maybe it's better paid for.

But if you're a U.S. student

It's not that easy to pay for.

If you're going to end up paying for school or if you're gonna pay for your school

Whether it's grad, undergrad or whatever, don't pay for it and unless you absolutely need it.

Before you start looking for grad programs start looking for people who can pay for you to go to grad school.

So my friend, he has a job. He looked for jobs specifically that would subsidize his grad school.

That's smart.

That's really smart.

I wish I had done that.

That's why I didn't go jumping into grad school when I was in New York or before then

Because I didn't wanna pay for it.

And now that is being paid for, I'm like, well now I have the opportunity to go

But for a lot of people, I would say don't just jump into grad school.

Yeah!

I mean, if it's a means to an end, I would say it's worth it.

If you're just doing it to kind of like

A job having to work

Maybe it's not the best.

Right?

But do what you want. You're an adult.

Long story short: Am I too old for school?

I don't think so because I came back on my own time. It wouldn't have made sense financially for me.

If they're willing to accept you at your age, you're not too old for school.

Some kid was like, did you fail at being shakaijin? Did you fail at being a full-on adult?

I was like, BRO! Did you start?!

Did you even try?

Did you even try?!

I feel like there's such an idea of a path you should take and things should take a certain amount of time.

But it's not real.

It's just something that people made up in their heads.

You shouldn't have to follow that just because a lot of people have done things that way.

If you go to grad school if your 30 or 40 or 50 or 90

It doesn't mean you're too old or you're a failure. It's just in your own time.

The food's almost gone.

Yeah, that was just something I was kind of thinking about. What do you guys think about it?

Especially Japanese people, I hope they're reading the subtitles.

Like, maybe I'm 8-years(or more)-too-late-to-be-an-adult, so what should I do?

So let us know in a comment below what you guys think about school, life, following your own path, doing what's right for you.

And check out Taylor's video!

It's not like this!

We're weird.

We are being quite silly.

Yeah

Thank you for listening to my weird talk about my weird feelings

And watching us eat really good food.

So tasty

So tasty!

We'll see you guys in another video. All right. Thanks for watching, guys!

I love you guys!