Thankful to the Crows
It’s that time of the year when the crows make it a personal mission to fly mere centimeters above me. I’ve only bothered to check what the crows’ business is all about, but it looks like they’re in an agitated mood to protect their newborn from harm. It will be challenging for the next few weeks, but it reminded me to be grateful of having immediate access to nature. High-rise trees by the hundreds, fresh air for the lung on my morning walk around the campus area.
In another way, I’m grateful that I only had to deal with crows at this time of the year. Had my recommended application failed, I would have been knee-deep in a 10-day journey across Japan, rolling my chances in at least three institutions, all while shedding the limited fund I had. As the winds of life would have it, I will be transferring to Toyohashi next year. As someone who had never even been west of Kawasaki, this will be a completely new experience to me.
I was never one to stay at one place for too long, be it due to chance or intentional actions. This is an inherited trait, as my family were modern nomads. I don’t know what to answer when someone asks the incredibly common “Where are you from?” icebreaker, and explaining my circumstances would probably exhaust that simple goodwill for communication. Cliché as it sounds, I’m not bound to a single identity, place, or home.
The sky really is the limit, as the saying goes. And as I close another chapter in this story under intermittent clouds, so do I reflect on the past. Mostly recent, but deep-rooted regrets and thoughts never really got away. I’m just doing a conscious effort to treat myself well and respectfully ignore these thoughts. And perhaps, I can make many more memories under these grey skies.