A Student Life of Challenge and Self-Exploration
Over her four years at Meiji Gakuin University, Aoi Nagatsuka has gained a wide range of experience, including serving as an open-campus staff member, a seminar representative, and a volunteer. She chose the Department of Social Work to learn the mindset she wants to maintain while engaging with others. What kind of student life has she led? And what is the “writing” (journaling) practice that she continues as a means of self-exploration?
Aoi Nagatsuka
Fourth-year student, Department of Social Work, the Faculty of Sociology & Social Work
From Tokyo. Her favorite expression is “The world I see through you is always endlessly exciting”; words from her mother, who has accompanied her life story and shared her view of the world. She loves spending time journaling and talking with people at cafés, which helps her refine her thoughts.
Learning “the mindset I want to maintain while engaging with others” in an inclusive society
In junior high school, even when there was something I truly wanted to do, I couldn’t take that first step. I wanted to try new things more than anyone, yet I felt frustrated with myself for holding back. When I reached high school, that experience led me to stop being afraid of myself and to start challenging whatever caught my interest, driven by my own will.
I have taken on many challenges since then, and throughout that process, I have felt supported and accompanied by many people. My mother ran alongside me, sometimes pulling me back and offering advice when I pushed forward too single-mindedly and lost perspective. My high school Japanese teacher helped me put my feelings into words for my college admission essays, refining them with me through round after round of revisions. Witnessing this kind of sincere, attentive way of engaging with others, from both family members and teachers, made me want to learn that skill for myself, and that is what led me to choose the path of studying welfare.
What drew me to Meiji Gakuin University was its educational philosophy of “Do for Others,” and the fact that the Department of Social Work within the Faculty of Sociology & Social Work offers a “Welfare Development Course.” This course covers NPO and corporate social contributions, well-being, international aid, and multicultural coexistence. I decided to apply through the self-recommendation exam, believing that Meiji Gakuin would be the place where I could best learn the mindset I want to maintain while engaging with others in an inclusive society, while being guided by an understanding of its educational philosophy and building firsthand experiences through the department’s fieldwork.
Continuing Self-Exploration Through Writing
Even after starting at college, I kept taking on new challenges such as part-time work, serving as a seminar representative, and volunteering. By confronting the self that emerged through those experiences and engaging in self-exploration, I tried to turn them into further growth.
The practice I used for that self-exploration was “journaling,” which is the act of writing down whatever thoughts and feelings come to mind, just as they are. Racing through my first year, completely absorbed in whatever was right in front of me, I arrived at my second year with a new feeling: I didn’t want to forget the things happening day by day, and I wanted to make time to face myself even amid all the challenges. From then on, I began writing about my daily life in a planner, and I also started recording my emotions and thoughts whenever I faced difficulties. Doing so kept me from becoming narrow-minded and helped me stay connected to my original purpose: facing the self that emerges through challenge and turning that into further growth. I also feel that I’ve become able to make calm, clear-headed judgments rather than reacting to things emotionally.
I still journal every day. I make a point of first accepting what I genuinely feel in the moment and writing it down just as it is. The planner I carry with me every day serves not only as a diary; I also use it to jot down things that stayed with me from conversations with people I’ve met, and to record thoughts that came to me from newspaper and magazine clippings I’ve saved. I write not only about plans and experiences during my “on” time but also about how I spend my “off” time, holidays and other moments of rest, in ways that replenish me. Lately, though, I’ve been intentional about not overfilling my schedule, creating enough breathing room to provide mental space and a wider perspective, so I can respond to things flexibly as they come.
Putting into practice at Open Campus the mindset I want to maintain while engaging with others
Among all the challenges I took on, my work as an Open Campus staff member stands out as particularly memorable. Open Campus was above all a place where I could put into practice what I had learned about the mindset I want to maintain while engaging with others.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to visit any Open Campus events when I was in high school, but I did have the opportunity to speak with Meiji Gakuin students online. I still remember how genuinely happy the words “do your best” made me feel. Wanting to be the one supporting high school students in turn, I have continued participating as an Open Campus staff member since my first year.
From my second year, I advised high school students at the Department of Social Work booth. I was careful not to think I understood the students who came for advice based solely on what I could see in front of me, and not to make assumptions about them. I believe my studies in the Department of Social Work played a big part in shaping that approach. The feeling I aimed for was one of drawing out each visitor’s strengths and appeal by asking questions from a variety of angles. For those with more in-depth questions about paths to admission, I would show them the actual materials I had studied myself, and I tried to provide the most thorough support I could within the limited time available. The most meaningful experience of my Open Campus participation was when an applicant I had advised was accepted and later joined me as a fellow Open Campus staff member.
Student Life as a Stepping Stone
Starting in April, I will be joining a company whose values align with mine. I don’t yet have a clear picture of my strengths. That’s precisely why, throughout my university life, I’ve taken on a wide range of challenges that form “dots” that may one day connect. People have sometimes told me it would be better to focus on one thing, but I like accumulating such dots, building up more drawers to draw from. I’m already excited to see where my life will take me as I step into this new environment.
In the Department of Social Work, I have been learning the mindset I want to maintain while engaging with others in an inclusive society. Continuing to act in ways that are of value to society and contributing to a better world: I believe this will, in turn, be a positive thing for all the people who have supported me along the way. I hope to find ways of giving back that go beyond simply saying thank you in person.
To those who will enter Meiji Gakuin
Above all else, speak your desires out loud and express what you feel. If there’s someone you want to meet, I think it’s worth actually going to meet them. Through that kind of action, you can create your own opportunities for new encounters and new challenges. And while you’re taking on all sorts of things, please also make time to turn your attention inward. As you engage in activities, you’ll start to see things about yourself: why you wanted to take on a challenge in the first place, what you like and dislike, what feels comfortable or uncomfortable, what perspectives matter to you… I believe that a spirit of self-exploration, truly getting to know yourself, will make what you gain from each experience all the richer. I can’t wait to see the world that lies ahead of me. I’ll keep moving forward on my own two feet.
