A Thousand Suns

(or At This 11th Hour, a Note of Thanks)

With less than 42 hours remaining in Canada, I feel that I need to spend some time thanking some people. This is going to be rambly, but its also the best attempt I’ve made at chronicling how I wound up on my path to Japan, so I’ll dub it appropriate.

First off, a thanks to Erica and Nam. Were it not for your animated bad influences, I don’t know that I would have been introduced to Japanese culture. Sure, you guys just uncovered a vein for me, and I followed it down the rabbit hole, but I still think those initial episodes of DBZ and EVA and all the giant-eyed, over-dramatized, seizure-robotted adventures since were influential.

A very special thanks to The Four who all contributed to landing me in Japan: Sir William, Allison, Coop-Kate, and Heather-chan.

Brave Sir Will, you came back from your travels in Japan, and you told me that I needed to go there, and you told me that—should I need a travelling companion—you would be it. You inspired me to set a deadline: that before my passport expired in January of 2011, I would go to Japan.

Allison, you came back from Japan and told me that, in some way, you knew I was meant to be there. You opened the door and you gave me this odd, unshakable confidence about travelling to Japan.

Kate, you gave me that picture of Tokyo, and on the back you wrote “Tokyo – April 2008/ For your hope chest”. You gave me a concrete goal and set me on the path. From that start, I was already brewing ideas about applying for the JET programme.

Heather, you have been my advisor through all of this. You used your own experiences from JET to both calm and educated me. Throughout my whole application process, you were ALWAYS eager to help me in any way you could, and though you deny it, I firmly believe that, without your help, I never would have made it into JET.

Thanks to Amy and to Allison and to all of their fun friends. You guys put me up in BC, showed me around, and assured that 1) I would have some stunning memories to take with me to Japan and 2) I had a little bit of paradise and a little bit of sanctuary for a few weeks before all the madness really started. No matter how wicked-crazy-amazing-cool Japan turns out to be, BC will really be the sunny jewel of this summer.

Thanks to all my friends, from Leaside, from MHS, and from everywhere in between. For the last two weeks, you have all dropped your own important bits of business to make time for me. We’ve gone for beers and burgers and babies and breakfast and bands and bad Michael Bay movies, and you’ve all made me feel like I’m loved and like I will be missed. I’m slow, so, of course, it is only hitting me now how much I am going to miss all of you, and I imagine I will only truly know how much when I am firmly half an ocean away.

Thanks to my family for making time and helping me out as I schizophrenically got ready. And a special thanks to Eric Jones: my brother and my cousin and my nephew. Though you said it was nothing, you completely rearranged your plans for me, drove up to Newmarket, picked up your whole family, and reminded me just how important the Joneses are. I think it was seeing you and Jenn and Jill and Steph and Evan that made me realize just how long I was going for, and just how far away it would be.

And, to accompany all the thanking, I would also like to apologize to all of you fine people who I wasn’t able to find time for. Leaving myself less than two weeks to see everyone and get ready was less ambitious and more foolhardy. Please forgive me my idiocy and send me your addresses so I can try to make it up to you with postcards!

Now I should quit wasting time and get back to the task of fitting my whole life into four far-too-small bags!

We want to thank you sooo much!