This will be my last post on the CCEB blog. It sounds a little sad, but this work is definitely going to help me summarise my astonishing journey in Australia.
I’ve stayed in Cairns for around 9 months and also been studying a lot at CCEB. My aim is obviously studying and improving my English, however as soon as I started my challenge here, I realised many unexpected things would wait for me. As everyone says, knowing other cultures, finding new characters inside of me, how I am in different places, these sort of things are studied by staying abroad. I also learned them, but they aren’t what I learned the most. I’m going to write two of my great ideas for the rest of my life which I got through this journey.
The first one is that I’ve expanded my horizons. It means I can challenge everything I want everywhere I want to go. I have spent most of my life in my hometown, even though I was interested in some other countries and some other regions in Japan. I always prefered to stay in my hometown and I didn’t think of my future as open to the world. But after coming to Australia, this view has totally changed. With knowing new things coming from other cultures, I realised I had lived in a really small world. Because of this change, I have thousands times more options in my life than before. This can confuse me as there are so many choices and it’s obviously difficult to choose one for now. However, not only does it confuse me, but it also makes me excited because I can believe something great is waiting for me in the future like this enjoyable experience in Cairns.
Secondly, thanks to my stay in Cairns (especially at CCEB), I recognized how many peaceful people there are in the world. Before coming here, because I had not been living for a long time without my parents, I was afraid of everything, for example making friends or starting a new life. On top of that, I was not confident of my English skills. But I’m going to end up appreciating everyone whom I’ve met here. I’ve always been helped and motivated by them and I could deal with many problems and smile most of the time because of their support. Many friends made me laugh a lot and encouraged me in many positive ways. My teachers were really patient even when I asked so many questions, pushed me a lot to improve my English. If I hadn’t met them here, I wouldn’t have been able to improve like I did. I’ll never forget all of them, even if they forget me, haha!
Last week, I traveled with my friend to Melbourne and Sydney. At a small gallery in Melbourne, I spotted the phrase “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Had it not been for the experiences in Cairns, I probably wouldn’t be able to understand this phrase and be impressed by it. This long journey in Australia, especially in Cairns, has definitely been a stepping stone in my life.
Haruka Sano, IELTS
