Ritsumeikan Academy
Competency Framework Special Website

Resilience is a critical competency that I have recognized as essential to develop during my studies. In the past, I would often feel overwhelmed when things didn’t go perfectly or when I faced setbacks in achieving my goals quickly. I tended to give up easily, feeling defeated by my imperfections. However, through reflection and experience, I have started to understand the importance of persistence and patience. I’ve learned that great things take time and effort, and it’s okay to make mistakes as part of the learning process. This realization has helped me bounce back from challenges, stay motivated, and continue working toward my goals despite obstacles.

There were many times when I felt that I could have scored better in the test during my first two years in the university. However, after some time I realized that simply giving up will not solve anything, thus I decided to accept my past failures, and concentrate more on my future goals and achievements. This experience helped me to develop the resilience, and ability to look forward.

I feel like this past year, and specifically these past 2 semesters, a lot have happened to me. I took on harder courses and I had to move out of the dorm and navigate house-hunting and moving as an international student with low Japanese proficiency. Additionally, I faced a few relationship struggles and had to cut off a few friends due to conflicts in mindset and their behaviors. All of these struggles were happing around June to August - also a time in which mid-terms and finals at school were conducted. I was very stressed, about school, finding a part-time job, finding a house and dealing with toxic friends. Retrospectively, I am impressed I was able to pull myself through such situations. I suppose I could do so by setting more realistic academic goals after periods of burnout, looking for help for house-hunting from Japanese-proficient friends and talking to - cutting off toxic friends. My life and my decisions during this period, has reinforced my resilience as an international in Japan.

when I was a bachelor's degree, pursuing higher education made me eager to refocus on how to get scholarship, and although many times failed.

Through reflecting on my academic journey, I realized the failure to achieve my personal goals near the beginning of my school life encouraged me to study harder, set higher goals, and most importantly, reach those higher goals.