Personal Narrative: My Experience At Roseburg High School

He told me that I could not succeed. He told me I was “doomed to fail.” I was introduced to the beauty and wonder of Japan when I was four years old. It started with Pokémon, but it blossomed into a full-blown passion. I was enamored with the culture and history of Japan, along with the styles and themes portrayed in anime and manga. My life revolved around learning more and more about Japan. In the seventh grade, I discovered Roseburg High School had a Japanese Club: I was instantly ready to go to high school. The club was better than I could have ever imagined. I was able to mingle with new friends while learning about my favorite place in the world: life felt perfect. By my sophomore year, I was elected to be the vice president of Japanese Club, which presented me with the opportunity to pursue my passion and encourage others just like me to learn about Japan.

But, in my junior year, I began to feel ashamed of my passion. I was serving my first term as a state officer for SkillsUSA, a student leadership organization. While at one of the state officer meetings, my coach saw my prized Hello Kitty phone case and told me, “If I see it again I will throw it away myself.” When I attempted to explain the cultural background of Hello Kitty’s brand, he became

I arrived home and gazed upon all my anime t-shirts and felt disgusted with myself. If my coach saw me wearing these clothes, he would scoff. My angst only worsened because if he felt that way, what did everyone else think? There were always people on the Internet voicing their opinions on how anime was awful and Satanist: was this what others thought when they noticed my Attack on Titan shirt? All the negative comments I had heard in person and seen online about Japan were playing in my head on a constant loop. The thought of having my reputation smeared because of my lifelong passion was inexplicably excruciating. I could not stand