Being shooed away like a dog, 'Shoo! Shoo!' But a 56-year-old who didn't give up.

I successfully made my freeway debut,
practiced the route to the university many times back and forth,
and finally reached my first day of school.

Until the day before, I had been driving on the highway as if my life depended on it.

Honestly, I felt like there was nothing left to be afraid of.

So, I got carried away.

“Alright, lunch at the school cafeteria.”

…I shouldn't call it a school cafeteria. It's a cafeteria.

I tried lining up at a certain famous sandwich shop.

Then, I was asked which bread I wanted.

But I didn't know the types.

To toast or not to toast.

To add cheese or not to add cheese.

I could pick up the words.

So I sort of understood what was being asked.

But I didn't know how to put it all together.

I didn't know how to choose, or how to respond.

I must have frozen with my mouth wide open.

On the other side of the counter, a Hispanic woman shouted something.

It was a busy lunch hour.

She didn't have time to deal with someone like me.

The next moment.

“Shoo! Shoo!”

She waved her fingers, with their bright red nails, at me.

Just like you'd shoo away a dog.

My pride was shredded in an instant.

The gazes of those around me pierced through me.

I, who should have conquered the freeway,

couldn't even order a single sandwich.

I ran away.

I literally ran away.

I was so hungry.

More than feeling frustrated,

more than feeling pathetic,

I was thinking,

'How should I have approached this challenge?'

I ducked into the shop next door and bought a bag of chips I grabbed at random from the shelf.

That day's lunch was a single bag of chips.

Crunch.

The sound was strangely loud.

My stomach was full, but my heart remained hungry in some way.

The next day, I changed my strategy.

I would go to the cafeteria, but I wouldn't stand in line.

I would observe intently from a seat a little further away.

What is everyone saying? How do they point at the bread? Toasted? Not toasted? What about cheese? What about sauce?

I break down the flow of ordering.

I went home and took notes.

I kept that up for three days.

Until then, I had been quietly eating the bread I brought myself.

It wasn't that I had lost.

It was a preparation period.

And then, on the fourth day.

I stood in line.

My heart was beating faster than a freeway, but this time I didn't freeze up. I answered properly.

I chose properly.

I received it properly.

I chose properly.

I received it properly.

The taste of that sandwich at that time,

was truly delicious!!

Since I chose a place where there were almost no Japanese people,

there was no one to talk to, and I was grateful that the only friends I made,

friends from Taiwan and Mongolia, comforted me

in broken English.

¥