Blog 1: Generosity is the flower of justice. - by Tomomi

Blog 1:

Every day, I wake up in the morning to see the Senate Office Building through my window, and step out of the building to find the Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court. I am so grateful, and I lay my thoughts in the brave United Methodist Women who fought to build this building for their future, the moment we live now, and our future. Five years ago when I was still living in Japan, I could never imagine myself working in D.C. People might say there is never a dream that is too big to dream, but it was so for me. I have been blessed to seize opportunities to attain education in the U.S. and many more encounters outside academics. Coming here from a homogeneous island country has constantly given me more time to think about my own identity as a citizen of this globe, not just as a citizen of Japan.

Particularly, I am grateful to have this opportunity through Ethnic Young Adults (EYA) program, for one; I have a family-like community I can call home and come back to every day after work, and for second; the program guides me to grow spiritually and allows me to keep questioning the real meaning and purpose behind my work at Church World Service (CWS). Work can often get superficial especially in this fluctuate city, so it is important to be reminded of "for what I am doing this".

Before the arrival at D.C., I was nervous. Throughout life, I have grown up in various religious backgrounds. I went to Christian school for eleven years in Japan, I also practice Shintoism and Buddhism as part of my home-country culture, and currently I attend Methodist University. Due to this religious heterogeneity that has shaped me, I was worried that if I would be "accepted" in an EYA community. But my fellow EYAs proved me wrong for that fear. Being with them, I feel the most comfortable to speak up my thoughts, express questions and doubts, and be vulnerable.

Since I started my life in the U.S., I always have felt the boundary hindering my confidence because of the language barrier, being an "alien" or just being on my own away from home and my family. There have been times that I notice my vulnerability more frequently than when I am in Japan, but often times, I did not want to disclose them because I did not want to be underestimated or seen as "less" than others. The gradual process of building a community with my EYA friends has given me courage to face my vulnerability, accept and embrace it. Most importantly, I believe that those experiences help me build a stronger sense of myself and the stillness of my heart. So, amongst many goals I have during this program, one is to be true to myself.

While I am just Japanese  – not minority nor majority – in Japan, in this diverse country, I belong to "minority", which is the word that I am still not used to using when I refer to my position in society. One day, I hope such concepts of minority and the oppressed would disappear because I genuinely believe that, with my experience of living in an international environment and my faith, we all are in one. I do not want such concepts of "minority" and "the oppressed" to create discriminatory lines between us, and I am grateful for this chance to work for a humanitarian cause to life up those who need to be.

I am from Japan and that is where I grew up, where my family is. Yet, I choose to pursue my life and vocation in the U.S. Why? Because of people like my EYA cohort. The program gives me little moments every day to just appreciate the presence and strength of inclusion in diverse ethnicities.

Lastly,

“Generosity is the flower of justice" – Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is one of my favorite quotes which I recently encountered. The past two weeks have been life examples of this quote. This experience has already convinced me that generosity we develop through our faith lies at the core of social justice work. I am grateful for my EYA peers' generosity to accept someone like me as truly who I am. Our EYA community is based on generosity, which guides us to pursue justice in our field to make our people visible, represented, heard and be an active part of the world.

In the next blog post, I will talk more about my work experience at CWS and the events we have been participating in D.C.!

- Tomomi. S