Unhandled Exception

I realize that the point of having a blog is to write about one’s life, and not just to ramble, like I’ve been doing, so here is the summarized version of my life.

I was born on March 8, 1988 in Makati City, Philippines and when I was a year old me and my entire family moved to California. I grew up there, studied there, made friends there, and when I was 14 years old we moved back to the Philippines. The move was sudden, swift, and non-negotiable. It was difficult for me (and still is) to adjust to a new country, lifestyle and language, but here I am today. I graduated high school just last year, at the age of 20, and I haven’t moved on to college yet. I hated school, and the one thing that made me feel better at the end of the day was anime. At the time I was watching School Rumble (massively funny shit), and thats when I got the idea to study in Japan.

About a week before my graduation ceremony, I discovered that the Japanese government offers scholarships to Filipino students through their Ministry of Education. Grantees of the scholarship get to go to Japan and study the language intensively for a year and move on to University to study in their chosen field. All expenses are covered , from tuition and matriculation to accommodation plus a generous stipend of 150,000 yen which is about $1200 USD. There were a few downsides to this, though. The first was that you had absolutely no choice in schools, neither language nor University. They do all the choosing for you. Second were the fields you were allowed to study in. I originally wanted to study Computer Science, but the closest they had to those two were Electronics and Electrical Engineering so I indicated Electrical Engineering. Third, was the qualifying examination. If you come from a decently affluent country like Hong Kong, where public education is respectable and produces students of decent caliber, then the qualifying exam should be cake. The Philippines, on the other hand, has an educational system that could be best described as “better-than-nothing”, and its a well-known fact that 94% of High School graduates in the Philippines are in no way qualified for college.

The exception to this rule would have to be the most affluent of private schools. Here, it is only the elite who can afford an education that is more or less on par with the rest of the developed world. Now what does this have to do with me? Well, I’m from a somewhat lower-middle class family and ever since we moved here we’ve had nothing but money problems. I was in and out of school all the time, and thats why I graduated at age 20, and since I switched schools 3 times (private schools), the quality of the education I received was not consistent. When it came time for me to study for the qualifying exams, I dug up every last one of my old materials and studied my ass off. I saw the practice exams on Monbusho’s (Japanese Ministry of Education) website, and I had not covered _any_ of the topics presented there in school. This was at the beginning of April. My application forms and documents were due at the end of April and the tests would start in June. I had less than 2 months to teach myself (impoverished, can’t afford a tutor) calculus, chemistry (our 3rd year chemistry class never touched topics like the ones here), and high-level physics and basic Japanese.

Needless to say I failed the test. That was as far as I got when it came to the scholarships and I can’t try again because I’ve hit the age limit. My first chance at the scholarship was also my last, and even if it wasn’t I still can’t afford a tutor, and can’t really go back to study the topics I’ve missed out on. I haven’t given up hope though, I know there are other ways to get there. I’ve done my research and the best way seems to be a language school option. I’ve found one (World-Link Education Japan; google it) that offers an academic year-long intensive course in the Japanese language, and has no age limit. I sign up for the schools 3 month long Conversation Course, enter the country on a Tourist Visa, and after that sign up for the Long-Term Intensive course and switch to the Pre-College visa without having to leave the country. I’m assuming that accommodation (rent, utilities) are covered in the lump sum that you pay to the school, so I can use that time to save up some extra cash.

When the course is over and I’ve a decent grasp of the Japanese language, I can apply for a University and switch to the College Visa. and when Uni is done I find work, and get a Work Visa. Now I estimate that by that time around 5-6 years would’ve passed which would qualify me for Permanent Residency (I’m not entirely sure on this), and if it does I could apply for that and another 5-10 years later I can get Japanese citizenship. The big kicker to this plan? Money. I need money. Lots and lots of money, but I don’t have any right now. So thus I turn my eyes towards heaven and literally pray for the money to carry out my plans.

God willing I’ll be able to leave this blasted country behind. Why do I think that God will hear me? I remember that in the Gospel (can’t remember the exact verse) Jesus was teaching people and he said something like, “What man among you, if his child asked for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish would you give him snakes? Likewise your Father in Heaven will give good things to those who ask him”, so I’m sure that he’ll answer my prayers someday.