About Me — Corey
Armed with Kafka’s ax and a mind of audacity
(Oops! I’ve been on Medium for a while now but didn’t introduce myself properly. Where are my manners?)
Ahem.
Hi, my name is Corey. I’m from the US. I live in Japan. (This photo of me and my wife was taken in Hawaii the year we got married. I met her in Japan and she is Japanese.)
I’m an English teacher. I teach at a high school in Japan. I’ve been teaching as a licensed teacher in Japan for the past six months, a very demanding yet exhilarating job.
I used to work as an ALT, or assistant language teacher, which is a less stable, yet less taxing position for people new to Japan. In fact, some of my happiest moments in Japan have been with Japanese schoolchildren as an ALT. (I only switched to high school after realizing that I’m just not good at disciplining the little rascals.)
I am a Christian and so is my wife. We met at a church in Japan. She started her walk with God after losing her home in the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.
The Christian friends she made in Hawaii after the tragedy have been such a blessing to her, and they are like family to us. Although she has been to Hawaii many times, we have gone together twice — and I can’t say I expected it to be such a lovely place.
I’m also autistic and proud. I was diagnosed in high school and have been on a journey ever since to know myself. The wisdom of autistic writers like Temple Grandin and Daniel Tammet has helped me along the way.
Most recently, I’ve become more interested in the intersectionality of autistic people with people of other ethnicities and genders. This is because I can’t change the fact that I’m autistic any more than a black person or a nonbinary person can change who they are. I’ve learned that these identities often overlap — and each one is perfectly valid.
My dream is to be a writer. In the Bible it says, “In the beginning was the Word.” As someone who has studied languages and the power of language, I firmly believe that. Since coming to Japan, I’ve experienced somewhat of a paradox in that I’ve delved more into the question of what it means to be American than what it means to live in Japan.
Standing out as a foreign resident, I’ve become a lot more conscious of my cultural identity, which means I’ve been revisiting my education in the humanities and building on it. Basically, I believe the question of what makes us human is worth answering, and I believe the elusive nature of this question makes the humanities necessary and relevant.
I’ve discovered the importance of reading classic literature because of this question, and I’ve realized why it is important for me as an American to attempt a response by getting to know English-language classics. Even if one isn’t interested in questions with placeholder answers, an education in the humanities will still teach you the power of reading.
No less a figure than Frederick Douglass underscores this idea in his autobiography, which relates his story of how he won his freedom from slavery in the antebellum US. A big step in this risky move was learning how to read, or of boldly taking a mile when given an inch in learning the alphabet. What you get with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the result, and I find it as audacious as it is inspiring.
When given an inch as autistic people, we take a mile to prove the bullies wrong.
My goals for Medium are very simple. They are as follows:
・Write interesting articles about Japan and the places I visit.
・Share my experiences as an autistic person of faith.
・Have positive exchanges with other writers.
・Keep an open mind.
・Learn from failure.
That’s about it.
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I’ve already written several articles for a few publications, but I’m still quite new to writing to be read. That is, I’m not new to writing — I’ve been keeping journals for years and would like to say I can write well — but I’m new to writing to be read by strangers.
Of course, I want to write about Japan and being autistic, but I also want to write about traveling and the books I read. I also want to talk about the importance of mental health. Although I often struggle with anxiety and depression, I wish to take every opportunity to show others that life is a miracle and to choose to keep living despite the pain is the ultimate flex.
Now that I’m in my thirties, I think I have plenty of experiences to think and write about, but my memory is hazy. Kafka once wrote in a letter to a friend that “a book must be the ax for the frozen sea inside us.” By extension, I believe that a writer’s experiences should be like an ax for the frozen sea of memory. My theory is that if only I could be made to remember more of my past experiences and reflect on them, then better writing will necessarily follow.
What makes me unique is that I’m the only person on this earth who can do what I can do to show that autistic people have a voice.
Although it can be quite difficult to communicate as an autistic person, I’m also learning to listen to others more. Reading books has only been one way for me to do this; I’m someone who has often had to step out of my comfort zone.
In any case, I hope I can use this platform to share stories and connect meaningfully with others.
I come from a typical white suburban family in the American South, though I may sound and act like someone who isn’t from there. As an autistic person, I tend to force people to alter their expectations anyway. (Sometimes I wish I had a proper Southern accent, though.)
Besides Japan, where I’ve been living for almost nine years, I’ve traveled to Spain, Morocco, and Canada.
I went to Spain for about a week, Canada for a few days, and Morocco for one day. Spain and Morocco were for a week-long excursion when I was studying Spanish in high school. We stayed in Andalusia, visiting such cultural and historical sites as the Alhambra and the Plaza de España. On a day trip to Morocco, we visited a carpet shop and saw some camels. I wish I had more to say about Morocco, but I don’t think one day was nearly enough to experience the country beyond a tourist fling.
As for Canada, I was forced to stay in Montreal for a few days after my connecting flight to Washington, DC was canceled due to a snowstorm. Despite the cold of winter, Montreal turned out to be a lovely city that I’d like to visit again — just maybe not for Christmas, when I’d rather be in the States with my family.
Otherwise, my brief detour in the second largest city in Canada yielded a fascination with the idea of a bilingual city in North America, as well as the French Catholic heritage of such iconic buildings as Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral and Notre-Dame Basilica.
Basically, Montreal made me wish I could recall the French I studied in college over a decade ago.
Of course, there are many beautiful people and places in Japan as well. Kyoto is my all-time favorite city in Japan because it is a city of art and the spirit of art. As someone with an artistic imagination, I could go to Kyoto a million times and never get bored. It’s a place I’d recommend 100% to anyone visiting Japan.
Other cities I’ve visited in Japan include Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Okayama, Himeji, Kobe, Nara, Ise, Nagoya, Fukui, Sapporo, Sendai, Yokohama, and, of course, Tokyo. Each city, town, and village of Japan, no matter how urban or rural, is like a piece in the cultural mosaic that is Japan, a truly fascinating country with over a thousand years of history.
Although I haven’t yet been to other Asian countries, I’ve long understood the Chinese and Korean influences on Japan, and it only makes sense that I go on to visit South Korea, Taiwan, or even China someday.
Just as Hawaii used to be a sovereign state, I’ve learned that Okinawa, or the Ryukyu Islands, also used to be a sovereign state. I’ve actually become more interested in visiting Okinawa by meeting some of the Okinawan population in Hawaii, but I’ve learned to see neither Okinawa nor Hawaii as being part of the imperialist powers that tried to stop their stories from being told.
As an American in Japan, I’ve also been interested in other English-speaking countries, namely Australia and the Philippines. Many English teachers in Japan come from the US, but I was surprised at the variety of English speakers from other countries when I first came to Japan. Many schools in Japan have study-abroad partnerships with schools in these countries, and my current school is one of them.
One thing I’ve learned as an autistic foreign resident in Japan is the importance of perseverance, what may be best described with the Japanese word, ganbaru. I try to learn something new each day and to make good on my promise to do better next time whenever I fail.
I think the same is as true about writing as it is about my students learning English: more than failing, the absolute worst thing you can do is give up.
In fact, the best example I believe a teacher can give to students is to treat each day as a new day and to demonstrate a willingness to learn from mistakes. Such an example motivates me as a writer, at least.
Anyway, I hope this self-introduction gives you a good idea of who I am and what kind of writing I wish to do. Of course, I’m open to suggestions as I go along.
I look forward to hearing from you all.
