Feeling out of place can be an overwhelming experience, and today, I share a personal story from my recent trip to Japan that highlights this very sentiment.
After a grueling 15-hour journey, I found myself navigating the bustling Tokyo Narita airport, grappling with language barriers and the pressure of making the right travel decisions. Despite my fears of getting lost or making a mistake, I discovered that the systems in place were much more accommodating than I anticipated. As I recount my journey from the airport to the train platform, you'll hear about the awkwardness, anxiety, and ultimately the relief that accompanied my travels.
Join me as I explore the lessons learned from this experience and embrace the beauty of feeling out of place.
Takeaways:
Feeling out of place is a universal experience; everyone has their own version of it.
Even in overwhelming situations, trusting the system and people can lead to positive outcomes.
Awkwardness and nervousness are common feelings when navigating unfamiliar environments and cultures.
Sometimes, the fear of making mistakes can be more daunting than the actual experience itself.
He writes, I definitely understand not entirely fitting in.
I think everyone has their own version of feeling out of place, and I think one of the great things we have the ability to do is to know it's all right. I it's okay to have that awkward phase.
This is an odd thing for me to write about, an odd prompt, and I didn't expect anything like this to come so quickly as I started writing, but I suppose it's appropriate for me. After all, I think I've probably felt out of place most of the time as I process this.
I'm probably most at home, either working with numbers and concepts or when I'm with a small group of people, usually one or two people. Probably not less, probably less than ten, though, fewer than three.
And I start to feel the pressure of maybe having to perform or feel like I have to kind of carry the conversation so we can avoid awkward silence. More than ten and it can start to feel unmanageable.
And I may struggle to keep up with the conversation threads, especially if more than one person is talking at the same time. But back to the question at hand. I probably felt most out of place recently when I traveled to Japan for work.
I'd been on flights or in airports for over 15 hours, didn't really get any sleep, and I had just landed at the Tokyo Narita airport.
While I expected language barriers to be there and to be surrounded by a sea of people from pretty much anywhere, it was still a little bit overwhelming, especially when it was time to purchase my train ticket to Tokyo. Now, I knew this was going to be a thing. So I'd researched this prior to leaving because I knew I was going to be in a new country.
I had limited, actually almost no experience with any kind of passenger train.
And I also knew that the stakes were pretty high because if I didn't get the ticket I needed, I could end up in the wrong place in a country where I don't speak the language. And I recognize that a lot of japanese people do speak English, but a lot don't.
So at the airport, there were actually multiple companies operating multiple train lines headed pretty much in every direction.
So I probably looked like the weary, wide eyed foreigner that I was just walking through the airport, looking around to try and find the right ticket office. Thankfully, the research I did beforehand did let me know the correct train line.
I needed to go for, and it prepared me to speak with a person rather than trying to use a purchasing kiosk with that person's help. Actually, I asked one person at the door and they directed me inside.
I asked another person basically just walked up and said, I want to get here by this time. And they knew the exact ticket that I needed. And I was able to get to the platform with actually time to spare. But of course, it didn't end there.
Once on the train, it did take me a few minutes to get my bearings, and I never really felt comfortable about the luggage situation. I was constantly worried I'd miss my stop.
However, my fears were unfounded because the train companies are much better at making accommodations for people like me than I am at controlling my emotions. I know it probably sounds dumb, but I was nervous and I shouldn't have been.
I was afraid I'd end up in a situation where I'd need a language other than English, but that didn't happen. I was afraid that I'd make a mistake that would send me to the wrong direction or get me in trouble with the authorities. But I didn't.
And maybe that's the lesson. I felt awkward and afraid. I struggled to trust. I struggled to trust the process, the system, and the people and to trust God.
And in the end, they didn't let me down. All was well. Which I guess makes this kind of a boring story if you think about it. But it's the story.
