As this marks the end of the Alphabet Superset Challenge, I really wanted to finish the same way I'll start it, so this letter is a blog entry that will air on my website on the 8th of April in 2024. I can't really fathom that date, it sounds so far away, even though I do know from experience just how fast time flies. I also am aware that on top of this challenge there will be other challenges that I'll have to face - as well as want to face.
Just as I'm about to start this challenge, during the second and third week, I will be in the middle of the mountains of the Japanese prefecture Yamagata and while I'll be working there as a two-week part-timer in a traditional Japanese ryokan, I wonder how much time I'll be able to save for this challenge to do. I'm also very curious as to know how this experience will shape the rest of my Alphabet Superset Challenge weeks.
One thing I've been meaning to do has been my driver's license in Japan, which I will probably have to do in Japanese. I wonder how this will affect my writing, and if I will maybe even change things up during the challenge itself to include very recent experiences. I just really hope that I'll finally be able to hold my driver's license in my hand by the end of this year, because it has been a very big milestone that I want to complete in order to be able to move to the Japanese countryside in the following years.
On a personal level, I just really hope that this whole challenge will help me in getting more comfortable to share my experiences with the world instead of just sharing it with a small group of people like how I used to back in the days with my old blog. I know there have always been a small number of close friends following along for the ride, but I hope that I'll be able to grow that number into a group of people that maybe don't know me personally, but are interested in Japan as well as my take on things.
There have been many times in the past where I have seen posts, videos, etc. that have been kind of unthinking and only scratch the surface of what life's like as a foreigner in Japan. This also might have been due to the fact that as a European, and especially German, I probably just have a different eye for different things. Due to my unique experiences and upbringing as the daughter of a single-mother in post-DDR East Germany - so rarely the Germany most people think about when they picture the stereotypical version of the country - combined with my rather unintentional path of moving to Japan, I often get the impression that I view things from a different standpoint than many other people. I really hope that with the help of this challenge, I'll be able to share this viewpoint with a lot more humans and hope to reach some of them, maybe even be able to teach a thing or two in the process.
In my past, I have unfortunately often been policing myself due to fear of receiving hate... or worse things that I still don't even fathom to mention. This has probably been due to my childhood consisting of being bullied heavily, not only from my peers, but from teachers as well as family members. These days, I have been able to free myself physically from all of the family members that have been holding me down, so I hope that with this challenge I will have been able to also finally loosen the emotional shackles that have been keeping me back. My overworrying and overthinking also complicate most things I have been trying to do myself, but with the help of struthless' online support, as well as the Discord server, I'm positive that this time I will be able to keep fighting until the end and will have been able to make it.
In that sense, I just want to say to you:
Congrats! You did it!
Even if I didn't do it perfectly or even if I wasn't able to finish it, it still will be an accomplishment, as well as something to learn and grow from. There are no failures in my opinion - only experiences that will enrich myself, my worldview as well as my writing. I wonder if while I'm reading this, I'll cringe a little at myself for the still very bumpy English I'm using?
We've been going into this with a very positive feeling, this challenge just came at the right time. I might not remember, but at this particular time, I felt really motivated to do something new after having tried to write a book that completely burned me out. I know that someday I will take that book back into my hands and complete the story that wants to be told, but I just know that this Alphabet Superset Challenge is meant to be used in a different manner. This was to further my writing abilities as well as show myself that I can do it. I am able to continue this and keep going. It will not be the first time in my life, that I'll prove to myself I can keep going even if something is hard. With the help and guidance of someone who is so good at pushing the limits, I know I am going to be able to do it as well. I have always been better at working together with someone instead of working alone.
This is it, I am looking forward to the person I will be on April 8th of 2024 when I read this again. I am looking forward to see what kind of skills I will have acquired and how I will be able to use those skills in my life going forward. I'm just really curious to see how all of this will feel at the end of it and no matter how it'll turn out - I'm glad that I chose to do it!
EFA
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