Japan World Youth Meeting 2019

I.                   Preparation for the Presentation

Our preparation for the World Youth Meeting presentation started on the early July.  Although there were many technical errors that hindered our work, we were able to communicate with each other online and were able to come up with suggestions, ideas, and the overall concept of the presentation. I had a great time talking with everyone since they were very cheerful and entertaining. I also felt very thankful and extremely grateful for their assistance. There were a lot of things that I needed to clarify since I had a ton of questions and the Japanese students and teachers guided me through the whole procedure. When I arrived at Japan, we managed to tidy up all the loose ends and repeatedly revised the presentation until we were satisfied with it.

II.                   Friendship with NFU Students

Although my stay in Japan was short, I never expected that, in a span of eight days, I would meet and make so many friends. I met different kinds of people and befriended them. Everyone I met was awfully kind and were very friendly. They were very fun to talk to and they didn’t hesitate on showing me around and shared their culture. We traveled around the prefecture eating together and bonding overall. They were very generous and enthusiastic about making me experience what they love about their culture. They were also very surprised when I spoke Japanese and it was always amusing to see them react that way. Despite knowing only a fraction of the Japanese language, I was able to get by the eight days in Japan because of their help. The host family was also the same way. I was feeling a bit queasy from the first few days since everything was different and new. Thankfully, everybody welcomed me with open arms and I am very grateful for that.

III.                   World Youth Meeting 2019

On the fourth day of my stay in Japan, the World Youth Meeting officially started. We were all nervous about the presentation despite the teachers saying that we were going to do a great job. I observed the other presentations and learned that there were a ton of worldwide issues that I was not aware of. An example of this was the water problem that one of the participants presented. The other presentations also made me realize that there are problems that my country might not be experiencing but the other countries are. At that very moment, I understood the true purpose of the World Youth Meeting. The meeting was for the youth to be aware of these problems, for them to share their knowledge and encourage the masses to take action for these problems in order to achieve an inclusive world.

IV.                   Conclusion

My experience as the delegate of my Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School in the World Youth Meeting has opened my eyes to the real world. An imperfect world with plenty of flaws and distressing concerns. It made me realize that the youth truly play a crucial role to the future of our society. We, the youth, are future of, not only our country, but the whole world. This also motivates me to encourage other students to make a difference. If we do our part no matter how small it is, the world might become a better place. It may not be much, but it is worth a shot.

According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” I thank the people who made this meeting possible and I thank them for the opportunity that they have given to me. For making me realize what I should do as part of the youth, for opening my eyes to the truth, for guiding us in order for us to understand the importance of an inclusive society, for giving an effort to make us get a grasp of what is truly happening to the world that we live in, I thank you once again.