The Steps to a Dream

My name is Brenden Higashino Nugent, I’m 18 years old and live in Eastvale California. My grandmother was born in Osaka Japan and lived there for 10 years, She moved to the States when my great-grandmother married an American soldier. Growing up in post-WWII America Japanese meant my family had to give up a lot of their heritage to be safe, and my great-grandpa was a jerk. Growing up now racism for Japanese people is way less tense meaning my grandma would talk and share of the heritage she remembered however the language was long gone by then.
A seed was growing in me to know more about this part of my life that was so disconnected that in 2017 when I got the opportunity to visit Japan I took it, even if it broke my bank. The trip was life-changing and fueled my desire to not only see more. When I left after that nine-day trip I promised myself it would not be the last time.
Living in California means there are a lot of bilingual people and I always had so much respect and admiration for them, so I decided to be the first person in my immediate family to learn a second language. After I realized my College Japanese class was already filled I looked up different tutoring methods for Japanese and found Amazing Talker and had my first class with my incredible teacher Sho. I have used Duolingo and other language teaching methods but with Sho, I understand Japanese on a fundamental level.
Today I am continuing my classes while I also work to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate as I dream of one day move to Japan to teach English to Japanese students. Learning a new Language has opened my mind to so much and made me appreciate and special language is. Hopefully, in the next upcoming years, I will be even closer to my dreams and can finally complete my promise to myself.