2017

So 2017 was a major year for me.  First, there was lots of anguish over my place of work and the harassment I was receiving from the administrator. Next I made a major decision to leave my job.  Also, I had begun to take courses online and most of them were focused on Japanese literature and culture, but a lot of them were going to be useful in my job.  It was a big year.  A difficult one.  I had to suffer a lot before I reached a place where I could be free of stress and unhappiness.  My emotions were riding a pogo stick, it was exhausting. 
Once I had reached the conclusion that I had to leave my job, I began to sleep better, the end was in sight.  While my original plan did not work out (getting a job at the public library), a job fell into my lap during September, with more hours and at a high school, plus I would have to commute (something I had already resigned myself to doing if I had got the job at the public library).  I already had a pretty good resume put together so, like I said, it fell in to my lap.
Next came for  me a period of steep adjustment and some anxiety (residual from being harassed for more than five years in my old job) and some things I like, coincidences.  I think I might have commented on the fact that my first semester I felt like I was floating, and kind of high with happiness.  It was a very strange feeling (but constant... no more pogo-ing of emotions!).  Physically, I was improving too.  It was overwhelming to see how better I felt without stress in my life.  It was equally overwhelming to know just how bad it was before, and I felt bad for all of the co-workers I had left behind. 
Now for the coincidence.  I have been taking online courses, and some of them are through Keio University in Tokyo.  I had already completed two courses on rare texts and was looking forward to the next course on sub cultures.  Which is where the coincidence comes in because my new library has a great collection of manga, and I had never read any in my life.  I didn't know anything!  So that course came along at a perfect moment.  Since I had enrolled in the spring, this just felt like destiny!  I have lots more to say on the subject, but for now I just wanted everyone to understand the origins of my new interests.  Manga has already been added to my labels... I look forward to using it a lot!