I need some good clichés. Like, “My heart is bursting with happiness.” Or, “My cup runneth over,” or something along those lines. Let’s see, how else can I put this? Last night ended a week of rich, rewarding experiences and I am filled up from it all. Geez, this is HARD to express in words. If you haven’t been there you will likely think I’m off my rocker. If you’ve been in my shoes, perhaps you understand what I’m trying to say.
We said goodbye to Yuki for the last time last night and it was like leaving a son. Olivia almost cried on the way home saying, “I miss Yuki already.” How can one week – one measly week of knowing someone – bring such closeness? I can’t quite express what it is, something about seeing things through the eyes of someone from another culture, and realizing that similarities exist whether you speak the same language or not.
At the Sayonara send-off party we were to read a letter to our guest telling him what it meant to us to host him and get to know him. So I whipped something up from the family. Little did I know that so did Jay, Zach and Olivia. Jay’s letter was LOVELY. He was obviously very touched by this whole experience and connected with Yuki in a deep, meaningful way. Olivia’s letter was priceless. Unfortunately, it was hand-written so no copies of it remain. The gist of it was this – Yuki was like her other (nicer was scratched out) brother and she hopes he will come back to see us, in fact, bring his whole family back to visit, she said. You know what, that would be just fine with all of us.
Thankfully, Zach is REALLY good at imitating him so we keep saying, “Do Yuki, do Yuki,” so it’s like we have him here with us if only for a moment.
One of the senseis told Jay that the Japanese are very loyal. When you make a friend and put an effort into extending your friendship, you will have a friend for life. Well, I hope that’s the case. I’ve never been that great at maintaining long-distance friendships unless the other end helps me keep things going. Hopefully Yuki and his family will stay in touch. It would be well worth it to all of us in my family.