I Came to America

I get to live in Santa Monica although strictly speaking my home address is in Los Angeles. The other side of my street is city of Santa Monica, and I did live in Santa Monica more than 10 years before my husband and I moved to where we are now. When I was a teenager, there was a Japanese pop singer who had a hit song called, “Come, Come to Santa Monica.” I didn’t know anything about the city, but I knew it was somewhere in America. I don’t know if I knew it was in California.

In a couple of weeks, I will celebrate my anniversary of coming to America — it’s actually incredulous to think it was 38 years ago! Since I was a little girl, I wanted to speak English and pursued various opportunities to learn: from watching Sesame Street to studying words the Carpenters songs. As I had graduated from a vocational school in Tokyo studying to be an interpreter, an opportunity arose to enroll in a private English as a Second Language school. I told my parents I would like to live in America at least 1 full year and maximum 3. By the second year, I knew I wasn’t going back.

I was a young and free-spirited “foreign student” who came to study English. I really didn’t have a long-term goal when I got here. All I wanted was to be an “American” girl. I tried hard to get rid of Japanese accent and to assimilate, and I would say I did accomplish fairly well.

It’s too long of a story to share about this long and winding paths I’ve traveled so far to get to where I am today. I became a U.S. Citizen in 2000, which makes me an official first generation Japanese-American: an immigrant. Today, I feel the weight of this word because this country has given me so much. I have realized many of my dreams, indeed “American dreams.” I am grateful every day for the life I’ve created here in the beautiful Southern California with many privileges that I don’t want to take for granted. And as I am mindful of differing perspectives that divide “our” country today, I do believe in humanity. We’re all in this together, and I am keeping my heart and mind open to listen and talk to people with ideas and opinions different from mine and for this great country called, America.