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A Dream Given to Me

YANAGIMORI, Nijiho (Kumamoto National College of Technology)

What is your future dream? My present dream is to become a pharmacologist, whose job is to research and develop medicines. So, I want to find a job in the pharmaceutical company and now I’m doing my best to study bio and chemical engineering at our college. However, to tell the truth, my dream was totally different: I wanted to be a nursery teacher. Then, what do you think made me change my dream? Today, I’m going to tell you why.

I had an uncle. He was very kind, bright, intelligent and strong. He knew everything and he could do anything. He loved me since I was very young, and I loved him, or I even admired him. My oldest memory with him is like this. When I was a little girl, he took me to an island for fishing by his boat. I was crying because I was afraid of water. Then, he held up and carried me from the boat to the island. Even now, I clearly remember the feeling of his brawny, warm arms. He was my hero.

Yes, it was my uncle who suggested me that I study at KOSEN. One summer day of my 2nd year of my junior high, he showed me a pamphlet of Kumamoto KOSEN, and said, “Hey, Nijiho, I believe KOSEN is the best school for you. Though you may not be very good at math, try your best!” However, I had a dream to be a nursery teacher then, and I was bad at math as he said, so I didn’t care about his words at all.

To tell the truth, two years before the summer, he had been diagnosed as a heart disease. It was a very rare disease and even the name of the disease was not clear. Unfortunately, it was said to be almost incurable.

At first, there were few subjective symptoms and he looked as healthy as before. However, when the summer passed and wind began to feel mildly cold, his condition suddenly began to become worse. He entered hospitals and repeated operations. There were no effective medicines for the disease. He still tried new medicines whenever he heard that a new medicine was developed. However, no medicine worked. He only suffered from serious side effects and he got weakened.

He had to attach an oxygen tubes to his nose. His skins became red from his head to feet because of the side effects of medicines. I could clearly saw that he was losing his weight whenever I saw him. The image of his brawny arms in my memory was nowhere. I got angry about his disease and about medicines, too. I really wanted to help him.

Then, I remembered that he had mentioned KOSEN. I was not sure why he had recommended KOSEN, but his words began to sound meaningful to me for the first time, then. “I don’t know what I can do, but I may be able to do something if I study at KOSEN,“ I thought. I began to gather information about KOSEN and I learned that many graduates from Kumamoto KOSEN were working for pharmaceutical companies. “I may be able to help him by developing new medicines!” I thought. That’s why I decided to go to KOSEN, and now I am studying bioengineering and chemistry very hard every day.

Sadly, my uncle died at the age of 37 last spring. His last words to me were “Try your best.” I was not able to help him. But I never forget him and his words. I’d like to study about medicines and medical supplies more and more, and I’d like to develop medicines for sufferers from bad disease like my uncle. This is my present dream, and it is a dream given by my uncle. When I can make this dream come true someday, I will be able to say to him from the bottom of my heart, “Thank you very much for giving me this dream.”