Ritsumeikan Academy
Competency Framework Special Website

To do research with the goal of achieving a novel finding, setbacks, and failing short of the initial expectations are inevitable since there are limited resources like research data or documentation. However, this challenge became a valuable opportunity to build our resilience. Each failure taught me a lesson to reflect, adapt, and refine my approach and strengthen my determination. There is a saying that I often hear "Even a bad result is still a result" This perspective helped me stay motivated, reminding me that every outcome contributes to progress, no matter how small or unexpected. Instead of discouragement, I saw challenges as stepping stones toward improvement that build resilience as one of my most essential competencies.

I was kind of person who can be easily influenced by the words of other. After coming to Japan I learned to analyze the perceptions and learned how to act them emotionally. I realized after being burdened with the tasks I have never experienced before, I gradually started to de clutter the things with best possible alternatives. For example if I have to fill out the form which is written in Japanese that will give me almost headaches but I used Google translate and answer in best possible way. Another example was talking in front of people in class room, I tried my best even with clumsy attempts, gradually I learned that the gravity of the questions or answers are less important than the expressions becasue very few of them will remember what I speak.

Resilience has been learned throughout the entirety of my life. I have constantly experienced troubles and failures in my life, but eventually, I learned that there is no such thing as failure as long as you keep trying. Failure is when you completely give up, learning is when you make mistakes and correct them. As long as you experience troubles and try to learn from them, you will never fail. I will provide an example. Unfortunately, I have had three friends pass away due to problems with mental health. While this profoundly affected me, I learned the importance of taking care of my own self and how to continue living even when life is difficult. Though there are many other examples of hardships in my life, this one stands out as a recent example, and I strengthened my resilience by living through this experience.

While starting study here, I was first very pressured how things work here so it took me some time to get used to the system, the people and what was expected of me. After my first semester I became even more aware about myself and trusted my abilities and skills even more than I did already before. A very big contribution was the experience of living abroad as well by my best friend in the UK. Because I am currently working on scholarship applications to stay longer in Japan, I see my path more clearer because I needed to do more reflection on my values I live by and what it can do for my future professional career. Even though I know getting into the scholarships is very difficult I have more insurance and trust in my abilities and skills to find even a way to stay longer in Japan without the scholarship money. It will work out in my way, I am more sure about that. Fortunately, I did not had major set backs to get back up again but the small "failures" or learning experiences in the intercultural context made me really resilient towards everything that I am working on right now as well as my future goals.