Hey guys, welcome back to my channel, your virtual ticket to Japan.

In today's video.

I'm going to be talking about how I almost gave up on going to Japan, I get a lot of D.

M.

S about how I moved to Japan and why I moved to Japan and a lot of people that are feeling a little down and worried about whether or not they can move to Japan and um lots of worries and stresses about that sort of thing and I will tell you that I've been there, so I'm going to tell you guys that story today.

So when I was in high school, so this goes all the way back into high school, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted to be, all that stuff.

So my high school offered japanese language and that's what I went for.

When I studied in high school we had to choose a language, a lot of people chose spanish, but I wanted to be different.

So I chose japanese and I fell in love with the language and the culture and my teacher was so amazing and inspired me and I realized that okay, I wanted to be a teacher, I was thinking about being an elementary school teacher, but after learning languages and about culture and seeing what my teacher could do, I wanted to be that too.

So when I was younger I strived to be a language teacher in the United States and Japanese was very popular at the time when I was in high school.

So a lot of schools didn't offer it, but a lot of schools in my area definitely offered it.

I've never been to Japan at this point, so I decided to keep studying and learning and soon enough my school offered a program to go study abroad for three weeks.

It's basically just a travel program.

It wasn't like studying abroad in a school or anything like that.

So I wanted to apply for because I was like, oh my gosh, that's perfect for me, I can go and I can learn More about the country and you know, put that on my resume someday that I studied abroad.

I was thinking really hard about my goal in life and that for sure 100% is what I wanted to be, was a Japanese language teacher in the States.

The person that was running, it was not my teacher, it was a teacher from another school in the area.

I didn't know much about the teacher, but when I went to the seminar that they had before Applying, I asked him, I said I want to go on this trip, like 100%, there wasn't a lot of people that wanted to go, surprisingly, there wasn't a huge group of people at least and they had a lot of spots open and my friend also wanted to apply.

She had diabetes so she was a little nervous but she knew that she could take care of herself.

We were, we were about to graduate, like we were 17, I think we've lived with this all our lives, we knew how to take care of ourselves.

So we knew that we could go to this country and be fine as long as you know, we were with a group of people and we carried whatever we needed for our medicine.

Sorry, I just sneezed.

Anyway, I asked the teacher, I said, hey, I have a peanut allergy, is it okay if I still go and I still apply, would it be a problem if I got accepted and where to go?

And he said, no, that does not matter.

You don't need to worry about having an allergy.

They're not considering that when you do apply for the opportunity and not to worry.

So I was like, okay, I'm gonna try and apply for this because I was really excited.

He seemed okay.

He was like, don't worry, we'll take care of you.

Like he was just super positive about the whole thing and I was like, all right, I'm going to apply.

I wrote the longest essays according to my teacher out of everybody and I had legit dreams.

I had, I wanted to be a Japanese language teacher, I wanted to study japanese language and get a bachelor's degree in japanese when I went to college.

I was so excited for that.

I talked about my, my ambitions and my goals in life and it was the longest essay and she said it was the most tear jerking essay because it was just a very, it was a very emotional read.

She said, so I really appreciate, appreciated that because I poured my heart into this and I was so determined.

So they had actually more spots open then there were people applying.

So we all applied.

Everything was good allergies didn't matter because at the time I was worried about that, I was like, does japan use a lot of nuts, peanut oil or whatever.

I thought so because you know in asian countries, a lot of Asian countries use that, I was definitely a little nervous.

So anyway the time came and I got my results and my teacher wanted to wait until the end of class because she didn't want me to know that I didn't get into the program.

She said she sat at the meeting and she pulled me aside and she told me the whole story and she said basically he at the meeting I guess said to all the people, well she has a peanut allergy and we don't want to take care of her.

So uh we're not going to let her go.

So he straight up said that at the meeting and my teacher said she fought for me, she really tried her hardest and then she cried, My teacher cried because I worked really hard in the class and I loved what I did and I had a lot of passion.

Um I was Japan club president in my high school and I was just really involved with the culture and also my friend with diabetes didn't get in because even though they told her that she could go and that's not considered she wasn't able to go.

So we both were very upset because everyone that applied went, I would have rather heard, no, I don't think that it's possible for you to go or no, you shouldn't apply because we're worried about your allergies.

I would have rather heard that.

Then I went through all of this and applied and didn't get in and then it made me question whether or not I would be able to ever go to Japan or I would ever be able to work there and live there.

And so I went to my counselor and she legit said the same thing, she's like, oh it's an asian country, they used all sorts of nuts.

No, I don't think you're going to be able to go to Japan, you should just quit everything now.

She was a very good counselor, but at the time it made me feel like, wow, I have to rethink my whole life career path, obviously it could be a japanese teacher in the states without going to Japan, but you want to be able to take your kids to Japan someday and you want to be able to experience the culture firsthand and tell your students about that.

And so I was really bummed out, I started rethinking my whole entire life and I was like, all right, well I'm probably never going to go to Japan, so I basically gave up at that time and it took a while for me to get back into it and to go to class after all of that and I just felt really defeated I guess because of my allergy and yeah, it's, it's crazy because when people think of allergies, people think oh, coughing and sneezing, but when you have to live your life every day and view food as possible poison, it's very mentally exhausting.

And especially now when you, when I have two new allergies that develop, especially when its main ingredient foods like main proteins, soy, egg nuts are the ingredients that I'm allergic to now, people don't talk about intolerances, sensitivities or allergies in anyway, besides, oh well she'll probably just get sick and be okay after that.

But I've had nut reactions and you're dying and to feel death when you eat something, it's the scariest thing in the world and I have an EpiPen and EpiPen is do not save you EpiPen buy you time, so I can see on the other side of the person that rejected my application, why he was nervous, but like I said, I wish he would have said something before that now I'm living here with two new allergies and have to learn to eat and to cope.

So like I said, those of you who do understand and have deadly allergies, um I feel for you and I get it and I know there's a lot of people that are scared to travel here and to move here, but I want to be, I want to give you hope and positivity because I am here and I'm living here, I'm full proof that you can survive in Japan living here with all these allergies and a lot of allergies are in Japan as well.

There's kids here that are born and raised that have allergies, they're allergic to soba, they're allergic to seafood, they're allergic to soy, there's soy allergies here in Japan and there's so many allergies around that it is possible to eat as long as you cook for yourself a lot and you find recipes which is what I'm doing now, but you can travel, you can live in another country, you have to work a little harder, it's a challenge, but you can do it and I want you guys to know that because I wish someone would have told me that a long time ago that I can do it and I want you guys to know that it will be mentioned in my videos because I want to use this to help other people that want to move to Japan and want to live in this country.

I want to show them that it's possible my allergies.

I accept, I accept myself like I accept who I am now and that is what's gonna be happening and I'm going to do it and I'm going to overcome it and I want you guys to know that this is going to be brought up when I'm cooking or when I'm at restaurants.

I don't know how bad it makes you feel when you do have a reaction, it's awful.

You're like, it's like your, your body is eating itself alive anyway.

I was scared when I was in high school and that was how I was feeling.

I wanted to give up.

Like how recently when I found out I had new allergies, I wanted to give up, but I told myself that that's not who I am.

First of all I'm gonna, I'm going to clear the air about something Japan.

If you have a nut allergy, it's very easy to live here.

Japan has less nuts and peanut oil.

They don't even use peanut oil here and I'm worse off in the States because they use so many peanut products and nut products in America compared to Japan.

So if you do have a nut allergy do not worry, it is very, very possible to live here.

So we an egg on the other hand is a lot more challenging, which is something I'm trying to figure out.

So if you guys do have that, let me know down below, I will do my best to share my lifestyle here and my challenges and what I can overcome.

So you guys can do it too when you travel and when you live here and don't be afraid to DM me or talk about these things because I definitely want to get that word out, but at the time I was very defeated and I felt like I couldn't ever live here and I am living the dream and I'm so grateful for it.

After all that happened, my Japanese teacher asked if I wanted to host an exchange student and I said yes, I was so excited about that to have that opportunity and then eventually my teacher ran a program to go to Japan in high school and study abroad there and I had the time of my life, I, I got in, I did the interview, I was so enthusiastic about it and the thing is I had to face the teacher that rejected me in the interview and I was so confident and I went in there and I told him how I felt, not about what he did, but I told him how I felt about Japan and my passion, how I'm never going to give up and they gave me that opportunity and I was so lucky and I was able to stay with my exchange student um so we swapped lives and it was just those four months of my life in Japanese High school was the best for months ever.

It will, I'm gonna get emotional, I'm going to get so emotional, oh my God, I don't want to cry.

Um I'm so lucky, I was so happy and that's the time.

Oh my God, I'm just so like grateful.

Like I'm so grateful to have had that opportunity because this country is so gorgeous and so beautiful and the people were so lovely and I experienced so much and learned so much and made so many friends when I was in high school and I've come such a long way and I think another reason why I'm getting a little emotional because I was like such a fighter.

Um I didn't stop, I kept going with my dreams and I came back again for an internship in college and I fell in love all over again despite all the things that I've gone through or even now, like the challenges that I'm facing, like it doesn't even matter, like I'm so, so, so lucky and grateful and happy every day that I live here and I'm gonna keep fighting and I'm gonna, you know, overcome those things and I truly am so my heart is here, everything is here.

So I want you guys to know, I feel like I'm telling my younger self this, I know a lot of people out there are in high school that watch my channel.

So if you are looking to go to Japan and you are young and you want to study abroad, you want to do those things, you have allergies.

I know this is just the topic on allergies.

If you do have them you can go um just do your research and really prepare yourself when you do come here because you are going to have to work a little harder when you move or when you travel it is going to be challenging but you can do it and I want to travel the world.

I want to see europe, I want to see other parts of Asia and I want to show people that you can do it with all of these allergies like you can do it, I keep telling myself that you can and not to give up because I didn't give up then and I'm not going to give up now.

So yeah, that is my story of how I almost gave up on going to Japan, how I almost quit.

It's like a lesson that you should learn in life is not to give up and always give your best and always do what's best for yourself and not let people affect you in any way or change or alter your mind because there's always a way where there's a will, there's a way anyway, I want to share how grateful I am to be living here and that there are a lot of times where I wanted to give up on a lot of things.

So this is just one of them.

Yeah, I hope you guys will follow me on my journey of overcoming so many things.

This Youtube channel is meant to document my growth and my mistakes and my trials in life and I'm going to look back on it and be like, wow, look how far I've come.

That's the reason why I started Youtube is to follow that journey into document everything that I do in my experiences that I have and yeah, and for my friends and family back home because I am so close to my family, I want them to see what I'm doing and to see me grow that is the video and I want you guys to share your stories and how you've overcome something or you almost gave up on something.

So when people do read my comments in this video, they will be encouraged and you know motivated as well to live their dreams and to follow their hearts and to never give up.

Like I want that.

I want people to read those types of things.

So if you do have a story, please don't hesitate to share it.

Don't forget to like this video and share it with people who love Japan or who just love travel in general.

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See ya.