Don't Serve Time, Make Time Serve YOU!
You choose to believe you make a difference, because otherwise, what the HECK are you doing besides letting the days go by? You ask yourself, "am I making the most of my life or just serving time?"
I received a letter from a reader asking me about how I was able to come to Japan as a teacher but flip that into a successful writing career here. I receive this type of question frequently, and I have no pat or definitive answer to it. I confess some of my success was simply “right place - right time - right frame of mind,” so when I answer such questions, I veer away from the idea that there is some kind of blueprint. I followed no discernible path to reach where I have, and I didn’t intend to blaze a trail for any to follow. I believe we all must make our own way in this world, and when you’re on your path, the “Creator” does what He/She/They can to nudge you and help you stay on it. But the onus is on you to respond to these nudges. Free will, and all that.
But the letter was written respectfully and thoughtfully, so I’ll respond a bit more concretely:
The majority of the non-Japanese (NJ) from the West you'll meet in Japan will be language teachers. They’ll spend a good portion of their lives cramming Western thoughts into Eastern minds via their mother tongue. Why? Well, for the most part, you don't need an advanced degree in Education or any particular certification, accreditation...or even Japanese ability. Just a university degree (if that) and come from a country where a language in demand here is the national language.
In other words, it's one of the simpler ways to get and keep a working visa to stay in Japan.
That's all well and good if you plan to stay here for the short haul...a year or two, at most. Beyond that, though, unless you have a love for the profession of teaching and get your rocks off getting paid to do what you love, the longer you stay here, the more you'll see the necessity of what I'm about to advise.
The Talking Heads nailed it in their eighties ditty: Once in a Lifetime (Letting the days go by!)
Before you know it, days become months become blurred years. You'll begin to notice it as those private students come and go. Or when those cute first-year junior high school kids you adored are headed to universities like Waseda or Keio or NYU or Columbia. They'll stop by for a visit and, as you stand there smiling, inferring from their visit that you played a critical role in their success, you'll also wonder if you made any difference at all or if their visit was merely a Japanese custom, an obligation...like the souvenirs your co-workers (many of whom haven't said two words to you in English or Japanese in years) bring you back from their vacations.
You choose to believe you did make a difference, though, because otherwise, what the HECK are you doing besides letting the days go by???
You might ask yourself, like I did, "Am I making the most of my life? Or am I just serving time?"
You might answer, "Yessirree Bob! I am where I belong! This is what I've always wanted. To live in an exotic country and teach exotic youth an exotic tongue, assimilate (as much as they'll let me) into their exotic culture, communicate in their exotic language, and have the natives fawning over me (or knocking one another over to avoid being near me), in response to their image of people who favor me, both good and bad, that precede me wherever I go.
If so, then you, my friend, have a life here in Japan!
If not, you best do yourself a favor and get a life, for doing so is crucial to not only keeping perspective but truly and sanely making the most of your time here.
Maybe you're saying to yourself, this advice is so obvious. Perhaps it is...to some.
It wasn't obvious to me, though.
I mean, until you've been here for a while and see for yourself how easy it is to fall prey to the predatory zeitgeist, where being polite and overly tolerant, not rocking the leaky boat you're sailing in, and not going against the contaminated grain is valued over truth and humanitarian reciprocity; where it’s easy to simply serve time with a smile that reflects the plasticity of the smiles around you... until then, it's not exactly a hellish existence at all.
For many, the rut is unrecognizable. Sure, you're not making your mark or any tangible difference, or even being especially productive or creative, but between teaching in a public school or university or Eikaiwa and a handful of private students or other various side gigs utilizing English you can easily acquire here (for example, you can be a mock man or woman of the cloth and pastor weddings -- to most Japanese Christianity is just a cute theme -- or if your Japanese is up to snuff, translating documents, interpreting, hell, I've had Japanese clients who pay well just to have me tidy up their English on business emails...) you're making enough money to handle your expenses, entertainment on the weekends, maybe even save a little if you're so inclined and don't have student loans to pay off.
If you are an unambitious, uncreative person with little to live for, hell, you could do a LOT worse.
The rut that Japan offers is not entirely revolting to many, especially when compared to other places. It all depends on what you want out of this existence, what you feel to be the best use of the short time you have on this planet, and how many and what kind of stanzas you intend to add to this epic we call our lives.
For me, life is empty and serves no purpose without creativity -- writing in particular -- or doing the study, research, and practice necessary to excel at it. I try to stay in a constant state of creativeness. I even prefer creating to selling my creations (often to my wife's chagrin). If I'm not working on an essay or article, I'm working on a book, a screenplay, or even a post on social media. I'm ALWAYS writing, even if only in my head!
It took me a while to actually make time serve me, though. Unbeknownst to me (I thought I was having fun), I was stuck in that servile state described in the above passages for a long time.
Don King, of all people, helped me see the light.
It was when I learned what he said of his years in Jail (IMO, a metaphor for life without a creative outlet) for manslaughter. He explained that he'd had "an epiphanous experience of pure religiosity." (As only Don can put it.)
I, too, had an epiphany—one that inspired and uplifted me. If you've read my first book, Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist, then you know how this inspirational moment compelled me to write and become even more creative than I was before coming to Japan.
I know Don King is not the most savory of characters, but wisdom can be gleaned from some unlikely sources sometimes. Because it was Don who said words that I live by and recommend you take to heart, too:
"I didn't serve time. I made time serve me!"
I took this to mean that Don made the best of the time he spent in an unfavorable condition. While Don was in prison for beating a black man to death, he read books and “expanded his mind” beyond the limitations of the mindset that cost him his freedom. That being, “It’s all about respect, and if respect isn’t given freely, it must be exacted!” That maxim is true enough, but the way he went about it lost him years of his life. However, he didn’t “Oh, woe is me” his years away behind bars. Nah. He made a plan for life post-incarceration to achieve his goals and “exact” the respect he deserved.
While I disagree with the manner in which he went about it, man, I respect the fuck out of that credo. I, too, set goals and pursue them doggedly, and over the years, have managed to exact me some respect under unfavorable conditions.
I made time serve me, too.
Thanks, Don