By Demetris Jefferson

On July 1st, during my scheduled Japan in DC program time, I had the pleasure of hearing Gabrielle Headly’s presentation and her stories about working and traveling in Japan. She talked about her time in the JET Program and her experience of working in a small village focused on pottery. She talked about kintsugi, the art of repairing pottery with gold lacquer. Ms. Gabrielle talked about her passion for ceramics and pottery, so it was cool to see how she was able to continue working towards that passion, while also working as a JET.

From that one interaction I have learned so much more about Japan and the way that you can take your dream and go so far in life. This talk made me also think about my own dreams about learning what Japan really is, and how my life can be benefited off of my love for learning what the world has to offer, not for what it is but what it can be. I learned that life is more of what you can make of it and that it is a lot about choices and chances, and so I choose both.