Are you well, my friends
I received a notification from Note saying, 'If you post by June 30th, you'll have posted for 9 consecutive months!' I had naturally entered a 'lazy input mode' a little while ago, but I'm resisting that to pick up my pen (well, my computer) for the sake of output.
It is very rare for someone like me, who gets hooked easily and loses interest just as quickly, to have continued posting for 8 months. To describe how easily I lose interest in terms of language learning: I study obsessively during the first half of the beginner level, to the point where I don't even mind pulling all-nighters, but once I enter the second half of the beginner level, I gradually get bored and quit studying entirely right before I'm supposed to take the proficiency test. As a result, Korean and Chinese have been the victims (?) of this so far. I feel every time that the key to continuing something for a long time is not to get too obsessed, but controlling my motivation is difficult.
I have an old study-abroad friend who is a 5-language speaker; after having a child, she diligently continued studying Korean and Chinese and passed the advanced level in both proficiency tests. I truly take my hat off to her. If she is a long-distance runner type, I am definitely a short-distance runner type.
It has been 5 years since I moved to my husband's hometown, and I have completely lost my Japanese friends living in Vietnam. I have acquaintances through my boss or work, but since it's strictly business, no matter how hard I try, it doesn't go beyond that. I do have Vietnamese friends, but they are either 'husband-connected' friends from his hometown or close colleagues from work. Living in a provincial city that could be called halfway compared to Hanoi, and having a small child, I have many restrictions.
When I was meeting with the last school friend who lived in Hanoi, she always called the time of the bus I took my 'Cinderella time' (lol). Because of the bus schedule, even if I tried my best, I could only stay in Hanoi until the evening. Going out for a drink at night is a dream within a dream.
Now that that friend has also returned home, I almost never go to Hanoi anymore. I have never met any Japanese people living in my hometown, so there are almost no opportunities to meet people outside of work and my husband's connections.
Sometimes, I suddenly want a Japanese female friend I can easily go for tea or a meal with. I knew this would happen eventually when I decided to continue my current life, but I feel a little lonely. Please laugh at me for still being a naive person living abroad.
The Japanese friends I once met in Vietnam and studied with at the same school have flown out of Vietnam. What I see through social media, messages, and phone calls is only a small part of their current lives, but everyone is walking their own path. They returned to Japan, found jobs, and became office workers, police officers, IT engineers, and so on. The 5-language speaker friend I mentioned earlier is one of them; she had been a single mother since her child was born, but I received news that she got married the other day. We are not a generation that holds the concept that 'marriage equals a woman's happiness,' but precisely because I knew her hardships firsthand, I am simply happy for the good news. It seems another former school friend will come to visit Vietnam in the autumn. I also have a close friend who I get along with who calls me every month without fail. Thanks to them, I can live today without killing myself.
Considering that even though the physical distance is far, we haven't met in years, and our life stages have changed, we are still in a relationship where we can easily contact each other, I think I am very blessed with friends. It is no exaggeration to say that my life, which has stubbornly remained in Vietnam like a stubborn stain despite being a short-distance runner, is still kept alive by my friends.