Dear Alumni Members of Utsunomiya Girl’s High School:

My name is Yoko (Galvin) Maeda. I graduated from Utsunomiya Girls' High School in 1968. It has been more than 50 years since I graduated from the school, and I feel that my education at Utsunomiya Girls’ High School was very valuable in my life. And I believe that there are many alumni members such as you, who will agree with my opinion. Presently I live in Canada and some of you may be wondering why I left Japan and what I have been doing in Canada. So, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the significant events that have happened throughout my life. But before I begin, I would like to share with you three guiding principles that were very dear to me. Because I lived by these principles, I truly believe my life has been incredibly fulfilling. The first principle is:

“Go see the world." These are the words of a priest I once met just before I left Japan. Based on his words, I created the painting titled “Fly Away”, a woman in kimono flying in the sky. And in it, I wrote: "Woman, fly away, without fear fly away. Because the sky is the limit and so is your future" The painting is posted on the first page of my website, so I'm sure you've seen it already. And the second principle is “Always have a sense of gratitude towards others”. The logic behind this is that we do not live alone, and that if we help the people around us and others, it will always come back to us. Third, once you decide to do something, never regret your choice. Even if things don't go well at first, if you continue to try and go through the experiences following that decision, good things always will follow. Those are the three guiding principles.

Keeping those words in mind, I would like to summarize significant events in my life. After graduating from Utsunomiya Girl’s High School in 1968, one of my friends referred me to work for a composer in Tokyo, who was quite famous at the time. My job was to help with housework with his promise that I could go back to school when possible.  So, I decided to move to Tokyo thinking that if I worked there, I not only could experience housework, which would be essential if I were to marry later, but also able to get the further education I needed. At that time, my family was not capable financially of sending me to a university. So, it was a great opportunity for me. However, the composer was getting busier than ever and there was hardly any time for me to go back to school. On top of that, his wife became pregnant, and I was afraid I would be more tied to housework. So, I resigned from the job after 6 months. Thankfully, within a month, I began to work as an office clerk at a company in Tokyo. One of the reasons why the company hired me was because I could use Japanese and English typewriters as I had taken typing classes at Utsunomiya Girl’s High School.

Soon after, I started going to the YMCA three times a week to learn English conversation at night. This was because ever since I was a child, my dream had been to travel abroad. So, I was very eager to attend such a school. Keep in mind, this was in 1970. So, I was expected to work six days per week and sometimes overtime at night. Even Sundays were spent working as per the company’s request. After a few months, it became very difficult for me to carry on such a busy life. Eventually, I felt very tired of this lifestyle and began to ask myself, "I wasn't born to live like this, so why was I born?"  When I was struggling with such thoughts, I passed by a Catholic church and decided to knock on the door, thinking that religion may give me the answer. Through that church, I attended a retreat held in Kamakura. During a session Father Rogé, a Canadian priest, gave the attendees the following explanation about life. "Life has a beginning (birth) and an end (death), but not everyone walks the same path to reach the end. Some people just live simply without having much excitement, and some people go through various experiences and live a fuller life. And other people take on the challenges of doing something outrages and they live their lives to the fullest. You are still young, see the world." These were the words of the priest.

I was influenced greatly by his words and a few months later, I decided to leave Japan to travel through Europe. I left Yokohama by cruise ship to Vladivostok (Russia), then got on a train via Trans-Siberian Railway and arrived in Moscow. From there, I flew to Sweden. While traveling in Scandinavia, Central and Southern Europe, I met a Canadian man (now my husband) in Seville, Spain, and have been living with him in Calgary for the last 54 years. My husband was travelling alone at the time and strangely enough, I found that he was the same age as I, had the same religion and the same outlook on life. Two months after I arrived in Canada, we were married, had two children, and lived the first three years without too many significant events

My husband worked for a construction company in the beginning. This meant that sometimes in winter, he had to work outside in the harsh climate of 30 degrees below zero. To avoid working in such conditions too long, my husband began attending university while working part-time at a department store. He wanted to become a social studies teacher in middle school. At the same time, I started working as a waitress to provide additional income for my family. Occasionally, in addition to being a waitress, I also sang with my guitar in lounges to earn extra money. I also became a tourist guide for Japanese travelers, and even worked as a clerk at a fur shop.  On one occasion, I travelled all the way from Calgary to Niagara Falls (4 hours by plane one way) to work at a fur shop and as a tourist guide there to support my husband and children.

Thankfully, my husband successfully graduated from university in three years. However, there were very few teaching jobs in Calgary around that time. So, he began to work for an insurance company which eventually led to the training job. As for me, I began to work as a secretary for an oil company in Calgary. Here again, my English typing skill which I had obtained at Utsunomiya Girl’s School came in very handy. As you can imagine, my life became very busy with work, housework, and childcare. After my husband obtained a university degree, I began to think that I should further my education, too, so that I could live confidently as his wife. This led me to attend the University of Calgary just as my husband did. It had been about 18 years since I graduated from high school then, so initially I was very anxious to go back to school. However, when I took math related courses in the beginning, I realized how advanced the education at Utsunomiya Girl’s High School was compared to that of the first-year courses at Canadian university. My first-year math (algebra) seemed quite easy, I felt as if I was reviewing what I had learned at high school.  So, as far as any Math related courses, I was able to obtain good grades at the university. Of course, other subjects were very difficult for me to deal with because of my incompetent English skill. For those, I struggled and had to study very hard.

As you may have noticed, by this time, my life became busier than when I had lived in Tokyo. This is because I didn’t quit my job while I was attending university. After nine years, I finally graduated with a degree in Petroleum Land Management (PLM) that was useful for the company I was working for. But you know as well as I know that life has its ups and downs throughout, just like a roller coaster. So, I can’t say that there were always good times. How often have I wondered if the decisions I made were the right ones throughout my life. However, I did not regret any of those decisions, and although it was very difficult, I kept marching forward with my husband and children.

As for my husband, he stayed working for insurance companies through his entire career.  He later became not only in charge of the training department for several companies, but also a director in the last company. Thankfully, as we aged, our lives kept improving. During those years as I constantly aspired to do something new, I asked my husband if that was okay with him. Surprisingly, he never stopped me from pursuing those wishes but always encouraged me to follow through. I am truly grateful to my husband for that.

As for me, even though I was not fluent in English, I was offered a job as a supervisor and a coordinator at several oil companies. And after graduating from university, I worked as a contracts analyst for more than 20 years. During that time, I had a lot of hobbies as well as work. Painting was one of them. When I painted some art pieces, I donated them to various charitable organizations so they could raise funds. Sometimes, both my husband and I volunteered for those organizations which lasted decades. Occasionally I led fund raising activities for a couple of organizations. In 1988, I was asked to become a host for the Calgary Winter Olympics and worked for them for a while. In addition, I was a member of a choir of a Catholic church my husband and I attended.  I have been singing every Sunday, sometimes as a soloist, and was also entrusted with being a conductor for several choirs. Currently, the musicians at my current church and I are working together to record hymns (with descant, alto and tenor parts) for those who cannot read music. Our aim is to complete a total of 50 songs.

When my children were small, I taught at a Japanese school on Fridays to encourage them to learn Japanese. While being a teacher, I also acted as a coordinator of a bazaar committee for the school. In addition, I wrote songs, which is also a part of my hobbies, and recorded some songs and released two CDs. My husband and I donated all the profits from the sale of the CDs to an organization helping homeless children and their families. I have also posted videos of some songs I composed on YouTube. And surprisingly, a part of the song "Don't Give Up" was used in a documentary for a Vancouver TV station.

Recently, I have written short stories on topics such as racism and opposition to drug use. I have posted these stories on my website for everyone to view. Also, as my husband takes great photos, his photos during our various travels were uploaded. I also started writing a variety of essays about the life we led, with the hope of our children and grandchildren would read them in the future. This is because we knew very little about our parents' lives when they were young... I sometimes write such essays in my native language though the extent of dealing with Japanese is very limited (only watch Japanese programs occasionally) being in Canada. Also, I have been away from Japan for over 50 years, I know my ability to write in Japanese is not perfect. However, I wish to continue to write just to keep my mother tongue alive for me. For this too, I am very grateful to the teachers who patiently taught us many difficult kanjis at Utsunomiya Girl’s High School. Those lessons indeed became very useful when I began to write essays in Japanese. After retirement, we traveled more than ever before and by the end of 2023, we were able to fulfill our dream of visiting 75 countries before we become 75 years old. If I continue to write like this, it may sound like I’m just bragging about our accomplishments. But that is not the point.  I just want to let you know that the past 54 years of our life are indeed proof that we have flown in the sky. Because we were not afraid of anything and thus far, we have been able to have so many experiences.

When I look back on our lives, I feel that both of us probably chose the extreme paths that Father Rogé was referring to in the retreat. Of course, we realized that we did accomplish so many things simply because we have lived for 75 years (such a long time). Anyway, our ultimate goal is that we can say that we don’t have any regrets when we take our last breath.

We have been retired since 2016, but there is one thing we tried very hard to do even when we didn’t have very much to spare. As I mentioned before, we have been donating to various charitable organizations and, more recently, to disaster-stricken areas in the world. Recently, we donated to Japan when there were natural disasters from time to time through the Canadian Red Cross. This is because we truly believe that by helping others, our lives would be better (karma). Just because we donate money, we don’t expect the money in return. To tell you the truth, we are donating to various organizations as if we are paying the insurance payment that may guarantee the happiness and health of our children, grandchildren, and ourselves. It is a way of showing gratitude as we feel we are very blessed so far.

Speaking of gratitude, I am very grateful to the teachers and staff at Utsunomiya Girls' High School. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to attend such a wonderful high school.

I am hoping that YOU are also flying away in various aspects in your life, always have a sense of gratitude for everything you have and anyone who surrounds you and living your life to the fullest without any regrets. If you could do that, I think you would be able to live a fulfilling life just as my husband and me. Having said that I'm quite sure there are many of you who have already been living that way and accomplished so much more than we could imagine.

But no matter how you wish to live your life, if you don’t have good health, it is very hard to do anything. So, first and foremost, I wish you good health.  

May 31, 2024, Yoko Maeda (Galvin)