The greatest mistake I ever made was falling in love with something I could never have.
Seven years ago I visited Japan on a whim and a $450 plane ticket, and promptly I fell in love. With such wonderfully enticing foods, locales, language, and seemingly everything else, how could I not want to be there? So it was that less than three years later I set out on the JET program to live and work in the place I loved. I got a taste of the life I wanted to live.
After three years on JET my time was up, but I didn't feel like my "Japan life" was over. I applied for jobs in Japan and in the nick of time managed to land one. I would be living in Tokyo in an amazing house, and living the dream of working a "real" job. What could be better?!
In the words of Chris Martin, sometimes the things that you love just don't love you back.
After a particularly long period of waiting, my work visa application was denied, and I was ejected unceremoniously back into the legions of the unemployed, this time looking in a city and even a country that I didn't really want to be in.
Fast forward two years later, and I'm still in that city with another rejection under my belt. It's becoming abundantly clear that Japan just doesn't want me back.
It's hard watching your dreams crumble in front of you. On days like today, I really think that getting that $450 ticket was the biggest mistake I've yet made. Had I never made it over to Japan, maybe today I wouldn't be stuck in this seemingly-endless cycle of disappointment.