It took forever to get this trip on the road.
Since I was in middle school, I had always wanted to go so badly. Especially after all the amazing stories my grandmother told me.
So in the summer of freshman year high school my thoughts were: "I will get there ASAP!" and planned.
Originally I had wanted to make it there in 2 years, maybe even become an exchange student for senior year. Eventually that plan was retracted and modified to a 2 month language study program during the summer between junior and senior year high school. After purchasing so many materials and educating myself on foreign travel and basic Japanese language, I thought, "I can do this!". My financial goal was $3,000.00, quite a large hurdle for a young, high school student. Everywhere I looked for a part time job.
Nobody wants to hire a kid.
However, my father hired me as an assistant to his booker-keeper. "This is it!", were my thoughts. Finally it seemed like my research and preparations were paying off.After working hard that goal eventually was met. Three-fucking-grand. It was finally done.The excitement, I was enthralled that after so many years my hard work was pulling off. The money was never touched. Not a cent was retrieved from that savings account.
Things were coming together so well.
Then January came. I had planned to tell my father in January, 5 months beforehand. With all the excitement it was difficult to wait until the right moment. I told him about my trip, how hard I worked to come up with funding, how I needed to purchase a plane ticket soon, how important for me it was to go.
And yet.. he said no.
He stipulated that unless someone accompanied me that I could not go. And that if I went anyway he would cut me off.
I was crushed. After so much effort. So much temptation. So much faith. So many hardships. I was barred from accomplishing one of my biggest goals ever placed in front of me. Even though the goal itself was rather small in comparison to my ending goal, it was to be the first stepping stone to my future. After taking the (accredited) language courses I was going to obtain a degree, or equivalent, in Japanese in order to live in Japan eventually as a manga artist. The manga industry requires advanced knowledge of the written language, as you can imagine.
After all this, even today, I've never thought my efforts would see fruits. Whenever they do I am genuinely surprised and enthralled. That is a big problem regarding college. If you don't believe you can succeed, you won't. College was already tough. Being dyslexic and having extreme test anxieties, college did not work for me; considering that I didn't believe it would work out from the start. So I ended up quitting, or more like I failed 1 class so my father decided I was a failure and forced me to quit. But that's a different story.
Fast forward 3.5 years and I'm in California with my girlfriend.
Something came upon me and I thought, I think I can do this. Things were coming together a bit and it seemed like everything would work. Flight tickets were at record time lows. At Men's Wearhouse there was a large buildup of vacation time. At that point I made the decision to commit. That was winter 2015.
By February I purchased my flight ticket, calculated timing by work season, registered my days off with work. Received taxes back from the state/nation. Even Chase Bank wanted to give me $300 just to open a bank account with them.
There were bumps, large ones.
The system did not send my vacation request to the manager and she did not honor them because it was too late. Busy season was already laid out by the time she realized I had requested off and my trip was during black out, which means you cannot request those days.
The company had already been declining in employee satisfaction like an avalanche, especially for myself being the one to bare the brunt of corporate abuse from the next manager above me all the way to the regional. The current/new regional did not even value my exceedingly upstanding work and told me to resign if I want to go on this trip.
So I decided to quit before my trip.
At first I felt so bad leaving my coworkers, knowing what their near future will entail. We have been treating the workplace like a concentration camp for over a year. Yet it felt so uplifting. By a month before my trip a miracle occured, a new job sprung fourth that paid way more and had a much better environment. They accepted me and decided to allow my trip.
And it happened.
My efforts, the have finally born sweet fruits for my consumption. After so much pain. After so many tears. It happened.
At long last I believe I can obtain my ending goal.
Since I was in middle school, I had always wanted to go so badly. Especially after all the amazing stories my grandmother told me.
So in the summer of freshman year high school my thoughts were: "I will get there ASAP!" and planned.
Originally I had wanted to make it there in 2 years, maybe even become an exchange student for senior year. Eventually that plan was retracted and modified to a 2 month language study program during the summer between junior and senior year high school. After purchasing so many materials and educating myself on foreign travel and basic Japanese language, I thought, "I can do this!". My financial goal was $3,000.00, quite a large hurdle for a young, high school student. Everywhere I looked for a part time job.
Nobody wants to hire a kid.
However, my father hired me as an assistant to his booker-keeper. "This is it!", were my thoughts. Finally it seemed like my research and preparations were paying off.After working hard that goal eventually was met. Three-fucking-grand. It was finally done.The excitement, I was enthralled that after so many years my hard work was pulling off. The money was never touched. Not a cent was retrieved from that savings account.
Things were coming together so well.
Then January came. I had planned to tell my father in January, 5 months beforehand. With all the excitement it was difficult to wait until the right moment. I told him about my trip, how hard I worked to come up with funding, how I needed to purchase a plane ticket soon, how important for me it was to go.
And yet.. he said no.
He stipulated that unless someone accompanied me that I could not go. And that if I went anyway he would cut me off.
I was crushed. After so much effort. So much temptation. So much faith. So many hardships. I was barred from accomplishing one of my biggest goals ever placed in front of me. Even though the goal itself was rather small in comparison to my ending goal, it was to be the first stepping stone to my future. After taking the (accredited) language courses I was going to obtain a degree, or equivalent, in Japanese in order to live in Japan eventually as a manga artist. The manga industry requires advanced knowledge of the written language, as you can imagine.
After all this, even today, I've never thought my efforts would see fruits. Whenever they do I am genuinely surprised and enthralled. That is a big problem regarding college. If you don't believe you can succeed, you won't. College was already tough. Being dyslexic and having extreme test anxieties, college did not work for me; considering that I didn't believe it would work out from the start. So I ended up quitting, or more like I failed 1 class so my father decided I was a failure and forced me to quit. But that's a different story.
Fast forward 3.5 years and I'm in California with my girlfriend.
Something came upon me and I thought, I think I can do this. Things were coming together a bit and it seemed like everything would work. Flight tickets were at record time lows. At Men's Wearhouse there was a large buildup of vacation time. At that point I made the decision to commit. That was winter 2015.
By February I purchased my flight ticket, calculated timing by work season, registered my days off with work. Received taxes back from the state/nation. Even Chase Bank wanted to give me $300 just to open a bank account with them.
There were bumps, large ones.
The system did not send my vacation request to the manager and she did not honor them because it was too late. Busy season was already laid out by the time she realized I had requested off and my trip was during black out, which means you cannot request those days.
The company had already been declining in employee satisfaction like an avalanche, especially for myself being the one to bare the brunt of corporate abuse from the next manager above me all the way to the regional. The current/new regional did not even value my exceedingly upstanding work and told me to resign if I want to go on this trip.
So I decided to quit before my trip.
At first I felt so bad leaving my coworkers, knowing what their near future will entail. We have been treating the workplace like a concentration camp for over a year. Yet it felt so uplifting. By a month before my trip a miracle occured, a new job sprung fourth that paid way more and had a much better environment. They accepted me and decided to allow my trip.
And it happened.
My efforts, the have finally born sweet fruits for my consumption. After so much pain. After so many tears. It happened.
At long last I believe I can obtain my ending goal.