Acceptance of the James Bradley Scholarship

Hello all,
The title may be misleading......as I did not win the scholarship. It was, and still is a great disappointment considering the unbelievable amount of time and effort I contributed to the application and overall scholarship process. I spent over a month and a half, (very, very, very) hectically completing the scholarship/application process, with the sacrifice of many sleepless nights/early mornings and a suckish Geometry, Honors English, and Biology grade.
However, I am still absolutely proud of myself for all of the effort I did put into what became a very long pending process, waiting for results, and thanks to much support from the amazing people I love at Essex High School, along with the very appreciated encouragement from fellow to-be Japan exchange students, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. Of course, being rejected totally sucks. But ultimately, I was not rejected at all. I was accepted into the regular program, which means I am going to Japan.....
so.I.believe.that.is.a.mega.accomplishment.to.be.totally.proud.of.


This whole phenomena feels so strange, though. I anxiously waited for two whole months to be given the results of the scholarship, yet it literally feels as if I only sent in the application last week. So much has happened during the time when I waited so anxiously, almost apprehensively for the day where I would be told if I was awarded the scholarship I was so determined to achieve. Time actually "flew", and now I am only 3 months from going to Japan for a year. I began the application in August, the moment I returned from Japan, and that was 4 months ago. Truly unbelievable.


Now I will move on to what exactly happened within the last several hours (in a delicious nutshell):
My dad picked me up from my friend's house at about 4:50 PM, in a mad rush to the post office right across the street from our house which closes at 5 PM. Considering the car ride home usually takes a good 15 minutes or so, I was quite the opposite of tranquil (love this word). We arrived at 5:03-ish, the post office was thankfully still open, I ran to our mailbox/location where it is possible to extract mail, to find a letter from Youth For Understanding. A friend of mine told me at school this morning, that a big letter is a "good thing, as that is what they do in college" <-- . Taking that in mind: this was a small letter, and sure enough it gave me a long spiel on how I was not selected as a scholarship recipient, and I was among many qualified applicants etc. It was/is upsetting! I have many reasons to think that I should have won, therefore I feel that I truly deserved the scholarship, practically. Being rejected is not fun at all, especially when one is intensely serious regarding the outcome. Despite all this, however, I will stay positive, the scholarship gave priority to certain schools and people with backgrounds relating to the war(not making an excuse), plus I was accepted into the regular program, which is what I originally always desired. Keeping a positive and open mind at all times, which is a major rule I stressed in my application, is key. I shall look at the bright side of affairs, as I quite obviously am extremely fortunate to be able to study in Japan for a year, with a 8MP webcam, laptop, and marvelous digital camera :O

Thank you so much for reading!! I know this was more of a negative post at the beginning, so I am sorry if that was at all awkward to read. I am/was also quite rushed throughout the process of writing this post as I have an astonishing amount of "stuff" to attend to. Oh, and to M.N, I did not mean to accuse you of anything. My lovely Asian goddess.

STAY POSITIVE EVERYONE! I will post again updating you all on the phone conference happening this Friday from 3-5 PM! I am so excited!! :D




4 Down, 3 to go

Acceptance

Hello everyone!

On Thursday November 19, 2009, I received a call from the Foreign Exchange program Youth for Understanding.
I was on the computer listening to a song by the artist Eiko by way of youtube. I had been hearing the song quite often on Japanese T.V. (the song's title is あの子の夢 by the way) being played as the main theme for the Japanese drama Welkame (no idea where the name comes from). While singing along, my dad abruptly interrupts my vocal session by suddenly entering my room and transfering the phone to my hand. Now as I hope you can imagine I was very confused, but when the phone speaker greeted my ear, I heard a message from a YFU representative stating...........


that


I was accepted into the program.



I have never been this happy in my whole life. I had been patiently (not really) waiting for months until the moment of absolute truth, and it came. The first post I wrote titled 'Anticipating', was really written based on my aspiration of being accepted, and as a result I had absolutely no idea whether I would be accepted or not. Now I know, and now I am the happiest little man alive.

I have yet to discover if I am the winner of the James Bradley Peace Foundation scholarship or not, but quite frankly I am just blissful that I am now offically accepted into the program. No more, "wondering if I am on the waiting list", "there may not be enough host families" or anything of the sort.
My dream came true!

Now, for any prospective exchange students who are waiting or will be waiting for their respective moment of truth, I wish you the best of luck and I truly hope (and believe) that your hard work pays off/will pay off!! Waiting is understandably the most painful part of the application process. The waiting causes so many negative thoughts and worries...but it is all beyond worth it in the end. And if you are not accepted, stay positive. There will be more opportunities later in life to go on exchange, and if you look at the whole thing positively, it is actually very beneficial if you are not accepted, lol. For one thing, you will have more time to study the language and research on foreign exchange!!!　だから頑張ってくださいよ！

Currently, I am actually working on figuring out my high school courses issue while I am in Japan. In September, I spoke with my guidance counselor at length about credits and classes, and she said I will finish off my sophomore classes when I return from Japan at the beginning of 2011. I also spoke with my local representative later that month, and I am currently figuring out courses (especially math and science) with other foreign exchange alumni/current exchange students on the cultures shocked forums. Since Essex High School only allows 2 credits of online study to be transfered onto my transcript, I am currently considering an online Math course (most likely Algebra II) while I am in Japan alongside my US History class which I am currently supposed to be finishing through BYU. Since I have only been studying Japanese for a year, I understandably do not have a high school level of proficiency in the language quite yet, and since I have a hard enough time not failing math when taught in English, I honestly do not see how I will survive a math class taught in Japanese. Of course, I will need to talk to my teachers in Japan if I cannot contact my Japanese high school beforehand.
Currently I am hoping they will give me some time to adjust to my surroundings and improve in the language before I am actually tested (if I even will be tested). I am told that Japanese science is literally impossible to follow if not fluent in Japanese, and Japanese Classics is precisely a sadistic nightmare, which sounds just marvelous. Apparently they learn even more kanji that is actually nonexistent in modern Japanese! JOY!

Well, as long as I can obtain a Math credit and maintain my knowledge in math, I am happy. Considering math is clearly my weakest point academically, I think it is what I should spend my second online credit on. I am currently being tutored and am studying math much more. It is not enjoyable, but I will stay positive!

Everything should become clearer in time. I will be attending a conference in Boston on December 6th, and I will also be meeting with the guidance counselor in charge of online classes at my high school.

Ok, NOW, I will sleep.

Thank you so much everybody! I will probably post again once I have my conference in Boston.

Stay happy!

-Oliver