My name is Zachary Shimmel and I am 14 years old. The purpose of this blog is to hopefully raise 5,000 dollars for tuition of my abroad experience in Japan. I am hoping to depart March 2012 and stay for 11 months through a program called AFS. I have loved Japan since I was a kid and had this crazy idea that pokemon were alive and kicking all over Japan. Growing up I made many Japanese friends and did a lot of research projects about the cultures. At after a million episodes of Naruto, and having read every Bleach manga in print, I realized that I had to go to Japan.
I have always been pretty stubborn and when I have my heart set on something I know i have to set out and go for it, so when I was 11 years old and my mother told me she wouldn't give me 2,000 dollars to get on a plane to Japan I responded "fine" and took my bicycle out for a ride around the neighborhood. It was pure serendipity when the coffee store down my block just happened to be looking for a part time worker. My only criteria was to be able to pour water into the coffee machine, and with that i had my own weekly income. only working three hours every Sunday really paid off when about two and a half years later, my best friend and I arrived in Narita airport.
Those were the best 10 days in my entire life and not to my surprise I fell head over heels for that country. With only about three months of learning Japanese under my belt, I was completely useless so upon my arrival I really cracked down with steady private Japanese classes. My parents have been total saints in paying for my bi-monthly lessons, but this AFS tuition is a whole other deal. My dream is to speak Japanese fluently and hopefully one day live there so this abroad trip is something I'm incredibly passionate about. I am still saving up money with my job at the coffee shop and teaching piano lessons but I am a long ways away from paying for tuition. Click the chip-in button to sponsor me, and please forward this blog to anyone else who you think would be interested in contributing. Thanks for reading!
-- The Japanese hakujin, Zachary Shimmel
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