Part three-  I quit, I traveled, I conquered

Phone waiting at the other end of the line “tut, tut,tut…”

“Hey girlly it’s me,

What are you up to Mat”

Nothing much, you know me”  Smile, Painfully.

Hey you wanna meet-up? let’s go for a coffee?”

Is everything okay Mat?

Yeah ……………….sure er………………………..I’m going to Japan!……………..”

Silence __________

What?”

Yeah, so lets meet,

Are you demon possessed?

Er, no,why?

Okay how about Hagen Daz in Leicester Square for 3pm?”

yeah sure.

Okay see you Saturday then.”

What I’m Black!?

From the moment she walked in the Hagen Daz cafe, I already knew what the rest of my fate would me. I was thoroughly at the mercy of my friend who was about to tear me down as you tear down. Tina(not my friend’s real name) was very upset and sad to see me go but most of all that I didn’t tell her earlier. And she  was now having to find out 6 weeks before I left the country.

She wasn’t the only friend to chastised me. Alan (also not his real name) my closest buddy for over 15 years was like

“What?” How will you cope out there? There’s no black people in Japan you’ll be the only one out there” at this point I responded with

“What, really!? I’m BLACK!? Oh, I didn’t realise? Is it that obvious?” He didn’t take that very well but thankfully he still talks to me.

As we sat down, one February afternoon, in Hagen-Daz enjoying the various Ice cream, I began to tell Tina about my childhood dream of going to Japan my passion and excitement.  She still thought I was demon-possessed.

I mean, who does that? Quit your well paid job and then takes on two part-time jobs. Including one working at Starbucks. Trade your one bed room flat for your friend’s couch and continue to temp so you could save enough money for the trip. Yeah well, I did that. I told her I wanted to put my self through a trial and experience what it would feel like to have multiple jobs. As that I may be one of my option out in Japan. I can’t tell you what she said after that.

Your friends ditching you or you ditching them!?

See I get it, when other people discourage you to do something you really believe in. Most of the time if they’re your close friends, it’s not because their against you. It’s usually one of the following reasons:

• They could be scared they’ll lose you

• Scared you will get hurt and disappointed and they don’t want that for you.

• They are uncomfortable with you not conforming to the norm.

•  But most of all, they don’t have the guts to do what you do. Plus you might be the only true-life hero in they know.

 So don’t hate your friends and family or ditch them they mean well but don’t know how to truly encourage you. However, if you have a great Idea that you want to pursue, you may have to avoid telling them for maybe 6 months-plus, until you totally saturate yourself  and believe in your Idea. That way you would have developed some serious backbone. Plus ask yourself  “what would happen to me if I didn’t achieve this goal, could I live with myself?”

The joke is – the following year Tina ditch me and took off to live and work in Barbados as a health consultant. Ha Ha Ha Ha…..Hilarious!!! I know. But that is a whole other story.

Bad News

So my scheme had been working according to plan and I had now saved enough money and research all my options of working and living in Japan. I was so Hyper! All I could think was now that I have faced my friends and family apart from my father, nothing can stop me now!! Not even death!

Had I spoken too fast and my adventure was about to get complicated. March 15th 2008, The phone rings, I picked up

“ALLO”

My uncle

“Mathy your mum died this morning”