Graduation and 311

And so I graduated from KCP. As expected, I cried like a motherfucker. But I'm not going to lie, I was pretty much doomed from the start.

An old classmate and I were chosen to emcee a part of the ceremony, and so we had to show up earlier that day to practice our spiel. Because we were part of the show, that morning the teachers decided to show us the video that they had prepared for the ceremony, because we wouldn't be able to see it well from behind the curtains. Although they meant well, the video itself made me just sort of break down, and the entire practice session that followed was just a big teary mess. Luckily my partner was a really great guy, and pretty much took care of me the entire day.

Although I was able to put myself back together in time for the graduation itself, the second we all sat down in the big auditorium, and the official school people started giving their speeches, somehow I lost my control and just started crying again, on and off the entire ceremony.

Now, on the outside, I'm sure I just looked like some weird oversensitive girl, crying for some bizarre reasons at something that wasn't really all that sad to begin with. But there was a lot more behind it.

I started school at KCP in January 2011, and roughly two months after I started my first semester, the earthquake happened, and everything I thought about life changed completely. I was at school that day. And if it wasn't for the teachers and staff, I don't know how I would have survived emotionally on the day of the earthquake, or the many days to follow. The teachers stayed with us during the many aftershocks, and some of them that were stranded stayed with the students overnight. The man who eventually became my main teacher for six months guided my entire dorm home by foot that night, a journey that took almost three hours in the cold. Without him, I would have had to stay overnight as well, and although I didn't know what was going to be waiting for me back home, the fact that I could even go home made everything just a little less terrifying.

Following March 11th, classes were made optional and everybody left. Everybody. I continued to go to class because that was all I could do to keep my life somewhat normal, in a world that had literally lost all sense of stability. I had almost no friends left, almost no housemates, absolutely no family, and was emotionally cut off from the world. And throughout the months that followed, going to school was one of the only things that kept me sane.

So graduating from KCP wasn't just graduating from a language school. For me, it was leaving behind all the people who helped me through the most difficult period of my life.

So even though I'm absolutely the type to get emotional at any sort of parting of ways, somehow I had never had such an emotionally charged ending before. And so there was no way I wasn't going to cry.

みんな、お疲れさまでした〜！卒業おめでとうございます！また会いましょう♡