Epiphany #2: The JET Afterlife

“What is it about this JET experience that makes people think it’s the best thing they’ve ever had, that makes them wish they were back even though when they were there, they couldn’t wait to leave?”

Well, I keep going back and forth over which entry I’m going to write next, but I’ve chosen to write about the second epiphany. I’ll write about the zoo next time. It may be more relevant to ex-JETS, but I’m sure there are some parallels that can apply to anyone.

I’m not sure how this will go. In some respects, this will be easier to write about than the first epiphany because it’s less personal. On the other hand, this one has more tangents and it keeps evolving. So it could be more difficult to write about. I’ll try to stick to main ideas, but just know that there will probably be a lot more to it than what I write and that this epiphany is more subject to change…as this one has to do with time.

I won’t go into detail about my time in Singapore for this entry. But a quick timeline: I was in Singapore from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday morning. I already talked about Saturday in my last entry. Now, I’m skipping a bit to Monday evening.

Monday evening, I met with my JET co-worker from my first year. I wasn’t entirely sure what we’d talk about. We never really got along well in Japan. But still, meeting her was what got me curious about Singapore in the first place. And when was I going to be there again? So of course, I wanted to meet with her.

Originally, the plan was to meet for dinner, but she ended up working late, so we just had a drink and chatted.
My uncle once said that people mostly talk about two things, the past and the future…not the present. In knowing this, I often try to avoid talking about the past and future too much. (But you know, my thinking is, the present is a pretty small portion of our lives. The past and the future make up a greater portion of our lives, which gives more things to talk about. But I think his point was that people either live in the past or the future instead of living in the present. Maybe I’ll comment more on this at the end.)

Anyway, I try to keep things in balance. However, the one thing my co-worker and I had in common was that we had lived and worked at the same school in Japan. So, naturally, we talked about that. Actually, she was the first ex-JET I’ve met with in person since I, myself, left the program. So it was nice to be able to talk about the experience.

But we talked about JET a bit more than I thought we would. She’d left the program a year before me, so it’s been about two and a half years since she left. I figured it would be a small part of our discussion. I mainly wanted to catch up with her. And since we didn’t have much in common, I was glad we were having a drink instead of dinner, for fear of running out of things to talk about. But she’s the one who took the conversation in that direction. She did most of the talking that night. And it got me wondering…

What is it about this JET experience that makes people think it’s the best thing they’ve ever had, that makes them wish they were back even though when they were there, they couldn’t wait to leave?

Perhaps I’m putting words in people’s mouths. However, the general feeling is that ex-JETs miss the program when they leave. Though, maybe it’s not just JET. After all, most things are better looking back than they were at the time. But this seems different. I don’t know. I don’t have time to summarize what made JET such a good experience. Maybe…well, wait. Let me say this first.

Going back to the subject at hand. So things are better looking back than they were at the time. People also say you only remember the good times. But the thing is, I haven’t found that to be the case. Maybe something’s wrong with me, but I remember everything…the good and the bad. I remember the bad just as much as (sometimes more than) the good. I realize JET was wonderful, and there are things I miss about Japan, but even in hindsight, I don’t, for a second, wish I’d stayed a third year. (I protest, too much. I must be lying.) Ok, maybe, if I could have put up with the nonsense for another year, it would have been nice to have stayed. But I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate it. I think the only way to appreciate JET is to leave it. You just can’t understand what you have til it’s gone. And if you know what you have, then you want to hang on to it all the more (in which case, great. Stay the three years).

Well, neither of these were the epiphany, but like I said, I realized a lot of things from this trip. I just rambled a bit. Sorry, sorry. I just get a bit carried away sometimes. So, um, right. The epiphany….I can’t remember what it was now. Crap. Something about time.

Ok, after I had met with my co-worker, I kind of felt it was a bad thing to have talked so much about JET (the past). She had been out of the program longer, so what good was it for me to remind her of a time that was over? I think that was it. That was the epiphany. (Or extrapolate that to the bigger picture, and that is the epiphany.) But I emphasize “was the epiphany”.

At first I thought it was bad to have brought back memories of a time that was over, but like I said earlier, it wasn’t all bad. I said it was nice…at least for me. I wasn’t sure about for her. I wrote an email thanking her for meeting with me and that I enjoyed reminiscing about the JET Program. I didn’t figure she’d respond to it, so I held on to the above epiphany. However, she did respond saying that she enjoyed catching up and talking about JET, in which case, the epiphany is null and void.

The danger of writing an epiphany of time (or anything I write with some air of finality) is that it’s subject to change with time.

Well, that’s the meat of what I have to write. I’ll close with some offshoots of the epiphany. But if you need to take a break…use the restroom or get a glass of water, you may do so now. I’ll mark your place right here.
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How well, did I get over JET? I lasted six months in the US before I came running back overseas. And why am I here in Taiwan? To experience something new? Or an attempt to recapture something I lost when I left JET. Taiwan is becoming more and more a base of operation for my objective in Japan, primarily to see my students graduate high school. That’s not to say that it’s a waste, but if I’m only here for Japan, aren’t living in the past?

It remains to be seen whether attending the graduation will be worth it. Will it be too late? Will it mean as much to me as I had hoped when I’m freezing in that gym? Will it mean anything to the students? Or will it be pathetic that an old teacher had nothing better to do than return to a school he hasn’t worked at for nearly two years? Well, as I mentioned in an entry a long time ago, one of the things I learned when I left Japan, you can’t be passive about it. You have to decide whether or not an experience is going to be good or bad. Don’t wait until it’s gone (counter to what I wrote above).