#240 Messages from the land Part 3

This “Messages from the Land” series takes place in the United States, where I spent seven years as a student! The East Coast of the US where I departed to when I was 15 years old, was a landscape I had never seen before.

Let's start with New Hampshire, where my high school is located.

The place is close to Canada, with the nearest big city being Boston. Climate-wise, it is like Aomori or Hokkaido in Japan.

In the winter, it gets down to about minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the lake that the high school faces is covered with ice about 2 meters thick.

Cars run on the ice, and yachts on the ice also appear in winter.

Needless to say, the winters are harsh here.

However, in the short spring and fall, it is a town of about 6,400 inhabitants with beautiful nature.

In summer, it is famous as a summer resort, but we students don't know much about this season because we were not on campus during summer vacation.

This is from Wikipedia, but you can see many photos of the place if you like.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfeboro,_New_Hampshire

It was a boarding school, so we gathered from all over the country (and a few of us from abroad) to share food, clothing, and shelter.

There are many episodes from the three years I spent there, but I would like to focus on the messages from the place.

The first thing I thought on the day I entered the dormitory was that there were not many stores in the area.

I arrived a little early, so I still remember wondering what I was going to do for food that day.

(I guess humans are survivalists after all, lol)

In the end, I bought what I could at a corner store, which is a mini-convenience store attached to a nearby gas station.

And I kept in touch with the guy who owns this corner store.

I ended up figuring out that the town had a pizza place, a breakfast place, a donut shop, a Chinese restaurant, a cafe in the hotel lodge, and various other places off campus after all.

Usually students ate in the cafeteria, but on weekends or when we had free time, we would walk out to these restaurants.

I felt then, as I do now, that this was a town with a strong sense of community.

It was like a presence gently watching over us students.

If we were not doing well, they would ask us, "What's wrong?” I am still grateful for what they did for us on a daily basis.

The area was mainly populated by white residents, and the only other people of any color were students attending my school.

This may have influenced my later search for my own identity.

It was a place where I thought a lot about my Japanese identity and sometimes got lost in the shuffle.

In my time, there were still relatively few Asian and other international students, so that probably had an impact on me.

I wondered often if I had to become an American. I struggled daily with this question.

This is the land where I gradually developed my own identity while feeling the energy of nature and the power of the community.

Unfortunately, I have not visited this place since my graduation, but I would like to return there at least once.

I wonder what I will feel when I stand by the magnificent lake. I am looking forward to it.

I would like to share a picture from the graduation ceremony and a picture from when my mother came to the parent-teacher conference.

What did you feel from the land during your student days?

If there are things that you felt because it was an impressionable time, or things that you feel because it is now, please share them with me in the comments section or even by DM!

In the next issue, we will move to New York City, where I spent my college years!

It was Golden Week in Japan.

Did you feel anything from the places you went to visit?

Even if you didn't go out, did you feel anything different from your usual sceneries?

I wish everyone all over the world a week with even one more smile!