自己紹介・Self Introduction

初めましての方、初めまして！知人友人の方、こんにちは！展子(ひろこ)です。
プロフィールでも少し自分について書いたのですが、ここではもう少し突っ込んだ話をしていきます。

1999年1月生まれの、美味しいものを食べることと、人との繋がりを感じることが、とりあえず大好きな現在23歳です。2021年8月にアメリカの4年制大学を卒業し、日本に本帰国して約半年が経ちました！

新しい環境に丸ごと包まれて色んな意味で刺激の多い毎日を、思い通りに使いこなせない英語で必死に生活していた最初の数年間も、アメリカで生活している自分と英語にかなり慣れて、コンスタントな緊張や戸惑いのない生活が楽しめるようになってからの数年間も、とりあえず全部全部を吸収して自分の中で消化して前に進む！ってことに必死になっていて、それを表現したり共有するまでに至ってなっかた気がします。

これからの私のnoteでは、生まれも育ちも日本、日本人の両親の間に生まれた純日本人の私がごく普通の公立高校普通科を卒業後18歳で渡米し、18歳から23歳までの約5年のアメリカでの毎日の暮らし、ほぼ日本人のいない学生生活、色んな種類のアルバイト、日本とは大違いの交友関係、身に染みて感じる文化の違い、徐々に変化したアイデンティティー、新しく出来上がった価値観などをちょっとずつ、振り返りながら、文字にしていこうと思っています。

次のnoteでは
[アメリカの大学に行くことにしたきっかけ]
[引っ越しの過程と、渡米時の気持ち]
あたり写真交えて書いていきます〜

Hey friends, I appreciate you for taking the time to read my story! My name is Hiroko. (To those who you know me, hey it's Hiro lol) I wrote a bit about myself on my profile (in Japanese), but I will dig deeper and share more stories about me.

I was born in January, 1999 and I am currently 23. I absolutely love eating all sorts of food and connecting with people through different experiences. I've graduated from university back in August, 2021 and moved back home (Japan) about a half year ago.

My early days and life in the U.S. were full of new experiences/encounters, and my first priority was to get through everyday with my non-fluent/very okay English and to keep moving forward with the life I decided to start there. After a couple of years, my English got a lot better and less awkward, and I was able to live a pretty comfortable life without having the constant tense feelings and small worries that were always in me somewhere deep down. Although, I was busy taking everything in and understanding/consuming all of those events, and I didn't have much energy left to share or express what I've noticed or learned throughout my days.

So, here I am. I'm re-reflecting on my life in the U.S. and writing and sharing my stories (my everyday life in the U.S., my American college experience with no friends from Japan, very interesting jobs I had, friends and friend groups I spent a lot of time together, eye-opening cultural differences, my identity which changed&evolved gradually overtime, new perspectives that I gained, etc) with my own words. I was born and raised in Japan, had never lived outside of Japan until I graduated regular public high school in my small hometown and moved to the U.S. when I was 18. I hope that there are unique perspectives I can share with everyone because of my (kind of) unusual background.

In my next note, I will be writing about
[why I decided to go to college in the U.S. instead of Japan]
[a moving process & how I felt when I moved ＋ some pics]

thank you, peace out!