special uninvited guest [2008.04.07]

... came in through the back door.

Except that's not right at all.  Tomorrow is the entrance ceremony for all of the new students at the respective schools and, just like they did for graduation, East Elementary has sent me an invitation to attend.  Katsuki-sensei, the new English teacher, said that being a special guest is certainly something to experience; he has never been invited as an honored guest.  Maybe I am not really normal, but I think I would rather not be.

In this role I am included with all of the various important heads of everything: Board of Education, city representatives, principals, distinguished members of the community, police chiefs...  pretty impressive eh?  Generally everyone is taken into a special room and given some tea, some little cakes or something, and they can chat and whatnot until they are led to their special seating area right before the event begins.  So what have I done to merit rubbing elbows with such an illustrious group?  Absolutely nothing.

I am there because I am the foreign English teacher, the perpetual guest.  While I do try to appreciate the consideration and honor of it, in many ways it is just another reminder that I do not really belong.

At the kindergarten graduation I was on the side of the room with all of the important people when I would have much rather been on the other side of the room with the teachers that I work with and have become friends with.  When I sat with all of the specially invited guests at East Elementary's graduation I would have vastly preferred to be sitting with Nagao-sensei sharing in the happiness and pride of his daughter's graduation.  Only at the junior high's graduation did I sit with the other teachers, and there is nowhere I would have rather been.

But that's pretty rare I guess, so tomorrow I will drink my tea and eat my cakes and enjoy it.  To be fare, being a sometimes teacher at four schools means I am not a full-time teacher at any of them, and I am incredibly grateful for the ever-present kindness.  This is not a complaint in any way, it is simply an alternate perspective.  In the pre-Japan prep they say that being the "gaijin star" is simultaneously the best and worst thing about coming here.  Damned if that ain't the truth.

mom always said i was special,

-greg.