Moving to California Autobiographical Statement

Autobiographical Statement

My names are Rentaro Kino from Hamamatsu, Japan. I am twenty-two years old. My hometown, located in between Tokyo and Osaka, is peri-urban and has an amazing rural-urban mix with an organized transportation system and farms. In essence, the weather in Hamamatsu city is similar to that of California, with warm summers and not-so-cold winters. In comparison to the various cities I have visited in Japan (including but not limited to Tokyo and Kyoto), Hamamatsu has been the most habitable to me. My father, who is fifty years old, works at a middle-sized construction firm and my mother, who happens to be of the same age as my dad, is a house maker. As a side job, they also manage a hand-made surfing pants company, whereby customers pick cloth fabric by themselves and make their own surfing pants. The company was born out of my father’s love for surfing. I have two younger sisters; the older of the two being twenty years old and the younger being seventeen years old. Both attend school and live with my parents in Hamamatsu.

My life has largely been eventful and full of invaluable lessons. The experiences I have encountered over time have made me the person I am today. For ten years, from kindergarten, I was an avid soccer player and was keen on joining a soccer team. However, later on, I came to the realization that my interests were not really in soccer. I was playing soccer to please my father who had all along been a good soccer player and had as a matter of fact been selected to join a high school all-star soccer team. Everybody, including his high school-days friends, expected me to follow in his footsteps. That is exactly how I was initiated into soccer. From time to time, my father would offer me soccer playing tips and was always keen on further enhancing my skills in the soccer game. I paid close attention to his teachings. However, deep inside, I could feel that soccer was not my true calling. By embracing football, I was in essence living up to my father’s expectations. I did not want to fail him. It is important to note that from an early age, I had always been an introvert. Even in instances where I disagreed with a certain point of view, I often chose to keep my opinions to myself. However, gradually, I started finding myself, and hence my voice. On joining high-school, which was a private institution by the name Hamamatsu Gakuin, I developed and pursued other interests, other than soccer. I developed a liking for surfing, which my father was engaged in at the time. I also joined an art club and soon enough, one of the six art pieces I had won an award.

My high school years were interesting and I engaged in most of the activities people of my age at the time were engaging in. My class was a special promotion class, which meant that we were supposed to focus on studying and transferring to universities in Japan. As a matter of fact, all of the students in high school except my class routinely reported to school at 8 AM. My class’ reporting time was 7AM – thus creating an extra hour of study. In essence, this exercise founded in me a more focused self as far as study is concerned. It has become a habit to the extent that I still do wake up early whenever I have to study for exams or complete pending classwork. It was also during my high-school years that I came to appreciate my math skills. My comfort with numbers is one of the reasons as to why I elected to pursue a business accounting major at California State University, Fullerton. Now, it has been four years since I came to the United States after graduating my high school. It is important to that although I was good in Mathematics during my high school years, English was not my favorite subject. Most of the time my English score used to range in the Cs.

I must say that moving to California could have been one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. In addition to being fascinated by the State’s weather, I found the nature and culture of its people amazing and pleasant. I made a conscious decision to stay in California even when others back home were transferring to Universities in Japan. In so doing, I also embraced the English language – which I decided to perfect by attending an English Language School called GEOS, located in Costa Mesa. From here I transferred to Orange Coast College (OCC), and then to California State University, Fullerton. Today, I am a more responsible and focused person. Without constant support and supervision from my family, I have also become more independent – something I could not have achieved had I stayed in Japan. I now make better-informed decisions and I do not shy away from making my stance on various issues known. I am more motivated and opportunistic that the future will bring even greater successes. The person I am today is basically an amalgamation of all my experiences through childhood to this present day. I am still recreating myself on the basis of my daily experiences.