I had my interview with Jette Irgens and Dr. Kunihiko Terasawa for my last article, homesickness among adults. Talking to these two people are always refreshing and thoughtful. As always, the conversation went on more than 15 minutes.
My first interview was with Jette. Jette was in my shoes, and specially many other international students shoes. She left home when she was 19 to pursue her undergrad career, from Denmark to Norway. Jette said she remembers being so homesick the first time she moved away from home. Her first year in Norway was depressing but after that period of transition she felt pretty settled and she knew her way around. When she moved to Iowa, she did not really feel homesick in that sense but she says she feel it unfamiliar with the culture, customs, etc. Occasionally, the only time she feels homesick is during holidays, such as Christmas Eve. Jette also shares an interesting story when she was in Brazil. She felt totally frustrated and exhausted when she sat with a group of Brazilians joking around and she did not understand any of the joke because her Portuguese was not good enough. I could totally relate to what she feels. The same thing happened to me when I first moved to Italy in 2009, even worse it was in English.
My second interview was with Dr. Terasawa, it was such a privilege to be able to talk to him and get Dr. Terasawa to open up because he says he does not quite enjoy publicity. He also served me a He really wanted to make sure that the story only goes to class. I got to know him personally about his childhood, teenagehood. Just like Jette, he has been away from home since he was in high school. He always went to school in a different hometown from where his parents live. He went to Tokyo for undergrad and since then he never lived with his parents anymore. I would say from my interview, Dr. Terasawa hardly ever felt homesick. But recently, he told me he has a strong desire to trace back to his roots and visit the house where his family used to live. He would consider it a different type of homesickness since he is aging. He also says it might be 'going back to the roots phenomenon' since his parents are no longer alive. From there, our conversation went to another directions: religions and politics. It was a critical conversation of the day.
Both Jette and Dr. Terasawa do not feel homesick anymore. There is one reason why: they both love their jobs and enjoy what they are doing!
It reminds me of Confucius quote "Do what you love, and you will never work for your job"
Bisous,
Rut
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