Sudden University Expulsion: How a Jobless, Penniless English-Challenged Person Decided to Study Abroad

・Introduction

For those aiming for a global career,
for those who want to study abroad but are stuck,
and for those studying a language,

I hope to give you a little push.

That is why I am writing this article.

I am presenting this as a series on how a hopeless person with a TOEIC score of 400 managed to reach 900 and now conducts business energetically while stationed in the U.S.

I have 20 years of experience with English.
I wrote about my hopeless TOEIC 400-point days during college in my previous article.

To put it briefly,

I spent my student days just playing around, and as my anxiety about the future gradually grew,
I, having no particular strengths, started studying for the TOEIC.

However, due to my long-standing habit of playing, I couldn't turn down invitations from friends, and I realized I was starting from a deficit.

Even so, I, a hopeless person who couldn't even sit at a desk for a TOEIC 400, managed to study and raise my score to 500.

I was able to raise my score a little, but a TOEIC score of 500 is not even a level I could write on my resume.

In this article,

I will write the <Study Abroad Era Edition>, covering how I went from there to study in Canada and the loop of setbacks and achievements I experienced.

I thought about writing the study abroad edition, but I decided to write the story leading up to it.
Titled,University Expulsion Edition!!

・Self-Introduction

・Stationed in rural U.S. for over 3 years
・Early 30s, no children
・English proficiency: TOEIC 900+
・University: Close to F-rank
・Aggressively doing business with Americans

・Before the study abroad era

When I wrote about my university days, I received a comment on X like the one below.

I appreciate that opinion.

Well, to be honest, at first I was a bit annoyed and wanted to reply in a confrontational way.

I still have a lot to learn.

However, it is true that it's not strange for people to think, "a loser wouldn't study abroad, nor could they".

Or rather, I was the same way.

So, before the study abroad chapter, I want to write about why I ended up studying abroad.

In fact, I also thought that studying abroad was not a world I could enter.
I always thought that such an opportunity would never come
to someone as ordinary and unremarkable as me, no matter how far I went.

Rather than saying the opportunity wouldn't come,
I couldn't take actions that separated me from the group. I had never taken actions that were different from others.

I think the phrase "unthinkable" is closer to how I felt about studying abroad.

In addition, my family wasn't wealthy and we didn't have any financial leeway.

Miraculously, my parents managed to put me through a private university, but it was an F-rank school.
Most people there thought university was just a place to hang out.

I was one of them.

That was when a sudden change in circumstances occurred.

- A Sudden Phone Call

One day, I was attending university as usual, right in the middle of my end-of-term exams.

I was already a junior at the time. My credits were in bad shape, so I had started attending classes seriously.

I was fired up, determined to earn all my remaining credits.

That was when I received a phone call from my father.

...??

I didn't understand the content at all, but humans are such shallow creatures, aren't they?

I remember that the immediate desire to do those things was the very first thing that came to mind.

However, without the understanding or reality of the situation catching up to me, I went to the student affairs office that very same day after receiving that one phone call and returned my student ID.


And so, having been stripped of my status as a university student in an instant without even being given the time to say goodbye to my classmates,

from the next day on, I really didn't have to take any more tests.

When I returned home, my mother was crying and apologizing, and my father explained the circumstances to me.

I still remember how angry I was at myself for having been completely oblivious to the fact that we were pushed that far, while I had just been fooling around.

No, while my father, mother, and brother were all working,
I was the only one allowed to attend university,
yet I spent my time working part-time jobs and having fun instead of studying.

It is too convenient to say I didn't know about this.

I simply turned my eyes away from reality, gave in to my desires, and pretended not to notice.

I cursed this weakness of my own heart from the bottom of my soul.

My father didn't even come home; he was working desperately, pushing his body to the limit.
My father, who worked on-site, sometimes continued working with an average of two hours of sleep a month.

Since I knew that, of course, I couldn't blame him.

It was a day when I felt like I had been expelled from university and had fallen from life.

- The day I decided on the spot to go study abroad

A few days after being expelled, I went to the university office with my mother,

a university official, the office staff, my mother, and I

ended up having a discussion among the four of us.

I still remember that even as I watched my mother crying and begging for forgiveness beside me,
there was a calm part of me.

The result of the discussion was,

that was what they said.

In other words,re-enrollment is possible depending on (strict) conditionswas what they told me.

In this way, although it was a struggle, I caught a glimpse of hope for enrolling next year.

I was relieved that I had somehow managed to avoid dropping out.

I see, so I have until next year.

Hmm, I have to study for the re-enrollment exam, and I need to save up money, too.

But...

...

"That's it, I'll go study abroad."

My parents were surprised by the words I blurted out.

I was already struggling with no money, and now I was going to do something that would cost even more.

I thought they would oppose me, asking if I had lost my mind, but
they didn't seem to feel that way at all, and were happy to support me.

However, it wasn't like I suddenly decided to study abroad out of the blue;
it was something I had been interested in for a long time.

My parents knew I had been studying English, and

above all,they were happy that I, who had always been so unambitious, was finally making a decision and taking action on my own.

Since elementary school, I had used a hand-me-down school bag, cleats given to me by friends,
and indoor shoes I kept wearing even after they became too small.

They knew that I had never complained,
even though I was never bought anything new.

I didn't want to be a helpless little lamb anymore who couldn't live unless I was doing exactly what everyone else was doing.

It was just living abroad, but from where I stood at the time, it was a huge, huge step forward.

When I decided to go study abroad

I had a premonition that if I missed this chance, I would live a buried life forever.
Being expelled is a bad thing, but I felt a positive urge to turn it into something good myself.

I also had a wish not to let it end in my parents' regret, and for them to have expectations for me, a person who had nothing, for the first time.

・Things I did after deciding to study abroad

Once I decided to study abroad, I realized that my time was limited.

First, I raised the money.

And I spent all the time I had outside of work on English.

At this time,

I was quite bad at maintaining friendships,
so I became estranged from the university friends I used to hang out with often.

Even so, there were other friends who threw me a farewell party and kept looking out for me.

I am still close with those people, and this incident deepened our bond even further.

When I was in the herd, I felt protected and at ease, but
I think looking back, I was just desperate not to get left behind.I think.

The fact that there are people who support me wherever I am and whatever I do made my heart stronger.

The people who are important to me became the support for my decisions,
and each decision I made after that turned into confidence.

Because I have a place to return to, I can live strongly anywhere on Earth.
I still hold this feeling even now while working as an overseas expatriate.

・In conclusion

My interpretation of the comment by X at the beginning.

Thinking about it this way, although I had no money or academic ability,
I wonder if I was blessed with my environment.I think.

What is a "genuine loser" anyway?

Not in good health?
No money?
Difficult family situation?

There is no definition or correct answer for these, and I can't think of any clever words to say either.

I now think that you don't really need to have a grand ambition to live abroad.

Just as people say "marriage is about momentum," big life decisions are really just about
momentum, aren't they?

Of course, planning and preparation are important, but the things you lose by just going for it on momentum are things you can quickly
get back and replace with something even better.

*I didn't write it here, but before studying abroad, I was only thinking about English and money, so I wasn't prepared at all. For example, I only brought very thin clothes to Canada in the winter (lol).

Also, I think it's important towish for what you want with all your might and rely on the people around you
.

Because I got so fired up with all that,I didn't make it to the study abroad section.

Planning is important, isn't it... (lol)

Next time, I will write the study abroad section thoroughly and properly!
I really mean it!!

I couldn't write much about English this time either, but I'll post my usual
language-related articles here. Please feel free to stop by.

This is Fuji's Note, supporting those who are working hard on languages and those aiming for an international career.

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It's interesting to re-read articles I wrote quite a while ago 🤣 (self-praise).
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