That’s the name of my blog. I’m sure you know that since you’re here right now, but maybe you don’t know why.
When I applied to this program, I didn’t tell anyone. It was only after I got through the first stage of interviews that I started telling the essential people, like my family and close friends, about this crazy, life-altering thing I was attempting to do. Among that inner circle of people was my (now ex) boyfriend, who took it as well as anyone could when they’re told that their significant other could be moving to the other side of the world: upset, but more or less supportive of my (often outrageous) ambitions.
Not really knowing what to say to make the situation seem better, I said “Don’t worry! It’s only for one year. I’ll send you a new set of chopsticks every month, it will be fun!”
To which he said “Yeah, but a year is still a long time…plus what am I gonna do with 12 sets of chopsticks?”
A good point! It was a ridiculous suggestion, but also kind of funny at the same time so it became one of those inside jokes that came up every now and again leading up to my departure. “Think of all the wonderful chopsticks you will have!” and I pledged that I actually would pay the postage and send twelve sets of chopsticks.
Of course, I only ever sent one pair of chopsticks. You can probably connect the dots as to why.
At that moment in time, I had hardly been gone a month. It was the height of my feelings of culture shock and moving frustrations but, to be honest, I hardly remember anything from then because it was all such a blur. However, I do remember thinking: what am I gonna do about that damn blog name?
A trivial thought, but sometimes you have to focus on trivial things so you don’t go mad with all the chaos around you. I looked at the one pair of chopsticks I currently had—bamboo with pink cherry blossoms on the ends, a gift from my wonderful, wonderful host family—and it filled me with happy memories of my time living with them.
That’s when I realized that I didn’t have to change the blog name.
Instead, I would treat myself to one new pair of chopsticks each month. At the end of the year, I would have twelve sets of chopsticks, each with a different story to tell about my time here. If nothing else, I’d save money on postage. Silver linings are everywhere if you just take some time look around!
I’ve stayed true to the promise I made to myself twelve months ago and so, without further ado, here are my beloved chopsticks:
I promise I will write a longer post about each individual pair, but that’s going to be super time consuming and right now I have to go to teach a class HAHA.
Anyways, it’s no secret now that I’ve recontracted to stay for another year, so once again my blog name is problematic. I’m not too worried about that this time around, though. I’ve decided that to keep the blog name and keep collecting—I’ve already got my pairs for August and September—but now my bigger question is, what am I gonna do with all these damn chopsticks?
すごい！お箸上手ですね! (su-goy! o-ha-shi-jyo-zu-des-ne!) - Wow! You are good at using chopsticks!
