The Meiji University-Affiliated Nakano and Hachioji Intermediate and High Schools (4)

Q. The school you go to is attached to Meiji University. Are any of you thinking in terms of actually going there after graduation?

Kawakami: Every test starting with the first one in your first year of high school gets used for figuring out whether you should be recommended to Meiji U. or not, so every one goes to cram schools. There's a fair number of kids who even cover up the fact that they're going to cram schools. I'm not considering going there, though, because I want to study abroad.

Tomoshiki: Just doing the regular schoolwork isn't enough to get you recommended to Meiji U., so I'm also studying for admission exams to other colleges.

Takizawa: My parents are afraid that I might not be able to get in on a recommendation, so as of this month, I've started going to a cram school. My folks are also thinking about admission exams to other colleges.

Ichikawa: Are you all totally conscious of whether something is relevant to getting recommended to Meiji U. from the time you start high school?

Kawakami: Not totally, no.

Takehazama: I don't think they're totally absorbed. They're just saying they want to go to Meiji, because they've got no other goals. I do, on the other hand.

Kawakami: There isn't hardly anyone who knows what he wants to do. "There are those who just want the university's name"

Takehazama: There are lots of people who think only of the university's name when deciding that they want to go to Meiji. I suspect there are popele who take that sort of thing seriously, too.

Kawakami: Even if I did go to Meiji, there's nothing that I myself want to do there. So I'm thinking about other colleges. I want to eventually do work involving using English, and I want to be qualified in various sports, so I'm thinking about going abroad. I personally think that most of the people going to this school right now are here because they were attracted by the Meiji name.

Takehazama: They don't have a clear idea of what they want to do.

Kawakami: There are those who have an objective in mind, but the number of people who just figure that going to Meiji might be a good idea is...

All: A lot. "I Was Confused By the Survey Sheet"

Noguchi: Most people, with no path laid out, and unable to decide for themselves, get a career interest survey sheet thrust at them by friends here. And when that happens, well, you're obligated to write at least what seems like a good idea at the time. That leads to a lot of people feeling confused and handing them back late.

Tomoshiki: So you just fill in those things any which way when you get them at a time when you don't know what you really want?

Takehazama: Right. You don't think about it as you're writing.

Noguchi: I've made up my mind, so filling it out was easy for me.

Takizawa: Right now at least, I'm set on the physics department, and I hope that in the course of studying the subject I'll find something personally interesting. That's what decided me.

Sone: I'm thinking about it since everything from my first high school year is wrapped up with my Meiji U. recommendation, but I still don't know yet what I want to do, or what I'd be good at.

Kawakami: I hadn't made up my mind when I started high school either. Those who've attended here since intermediate school are like that.

Takehazama: I figured I could go straight from intermediate school to college, so I haven't thought all that seriously about my future. "Looking Forward to What I'll Be Doing a Decade From Now"

Izumi: At this stage, it's unusual to have an objective. I think it's just as well to go wherever life takes me. It's fun to think about where I'll be in a decade. Whatever I'm doing, I'm sure it won't be dull. I'm looking forward to life a decade from now.

Kawakami: If you just go on without any plan, your life will go through big changes.

Takehazama: And it'll be too late for regrets.

Izumi: Regrets are themselves a part of life.

Kawakami: You only get one shot. Regrets are no use.

Q. Have any of you decided what you want to do with your lives?

Noguchi: I want to do biotechnology research, but I really don't know how to get into that line of work, so I'd like to talk with teachers who know about that field.

Ichikawa: On the career interest survey sheet, I wrote that I'd like to get into a job which involves writing. It was a long time ago, though, and I don't really remember why.

Takehazama: I want to work in mass media.

Kawakami: When did you know what you wanted to do with your life, Mr. Anno?

Anno: I just let life carry me along, like that guy over there said.
(To Be Continued)

(From the April 23, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate School News)