Ritsumeikan Academy
Competency Framework Special Website

I had lost a lot of precious people and things in my entire life that made me realise I must keep going through and push through all my failures no matter how vast.

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.

My grade for Spring 2024 was not the best, especially after getting a high GPA the previous semester (Fall 2023). My life basically dropped for a few days, but from that fall down, I started to feel more motivated and reflective of my life. I decided that rather than focusing on the bad things I should instead avert my mind towards the positive things and change my perspectives. I remember one quote; "don't focus on the past or you'll miss the future." So, I decided to move on and do my best, and even if I fail that just mean that I have to try again.

I wanted to drop one class at the start of the semester however, i motivated myself not to gave up and practice a lot so that I would not fall behind in class.

I believe through classes I was able to acquire resiliency. During class students have to go through exam, presentation, and group project. While doing these assignments we do face failure and achievement at the same time. Therefore to finish the project we have to recover from failure and look for the way to achieve them. I acquire resilience during class as a student.

Before COVID-19, I was a smart and hardworking person. When the virus began to spread, I stayed home and gradually became unmotivated. In my country, many of us started feeling uncertain about our future, leading to nearly two years of stagnation. Now, here I am at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. I've become more open-minded and am beginning to see a bright future ahead.

When I am doing tasks that seem difficult, I never give up and keep trying until I can achieve it.

In my first year in Ritsumeikan University, I was assigned to proficient classes based on my English language skills. However, as a fresher in a very new environment, it was very hard for me to carry out my course works to my best abilities. My struggle in completing my research work was especially hard on me leading me to feel mentally drained and anxious. However, my professors have guided me and prepared me for the next step in my academic journey. Their advice, counseling and guidance has made me learn from my failure and helped me be resilient beyond I could ever imagine.

I realized the competency that i had acquired was resilience was during the time around my exams. During the exam period there were many things that i had to study and i didn't know what to do. Instead of giving up and just failing the exams or getting a bad score, I continued to study hard and asked my professors, seniors and friends when i didn't understand something. I am someone who usually finds it hard to concentrate on tasks so this was very difficult to me. By asking my teachers and not giving up in the early stages I got good scores on my exams and i hope that translates to a good grade at the end of the semester.