I Cried for a Month in Saskatoon — The Uses of Homesickness

My Canadian destination was Saskatoon — freezing winters, only a few dozen Japanese residents in town. An eighteen-year-old who knew only sports, with zero English, I spent my first month homesick and in tears. Looking back, that month was necessary. People only get serious when there is nowhere to run.

Because there were almost no Japanese around, I had no choice but to make local friends — and those friends would change my life. A chairman of a Nasdaq-listed company once cried for a month abroad. So to anyone crying somewhere today: those tears are probably foreshadowing.

What do you work for?