Here is my morning talk from Friday. As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments. I think this was a good topic to finish the year with.

“Mr. Allen, I live in Japan. I don’t need English.” I’ve been teaching in Japan for 19 years and I have heard this many times. But today I want to tell you a secret: “Nothing is wasted”.

When I was 18 years old, I worked in a sandwich shop. In three years, I made more than 50,000 sandwiches! My friend said to me “Allen, why are you wasting your time working there?” But what he didn’t know was that, as the manager, I learned how to order food, how to make a schedule for staff, and how to keep the restaurant clean and safe.

When I was 20, I moved to a new city. Because of my experience at the sandwich shop I found a new job at a restaurant in one day! I started university and made a friend name Chris. He told me about a summer job working for Canada Customs (税関). It was a lot more money and a lot more interesting. All I had to do was take a test and an interview. The test was difficult, 5 hours! In one part, you had to remember a list of rules, and then one hour later write them down from memory. But, for my test, the rules were about kitchen safety! I already knew those rules from my time in the sandwich shop. I passed the test, passed the interview, and got the job. Thank you, sandwich shop!

Four years later I was finishing university. My plan was to be a history teacher, but my girlfriend was in Japan. I decided to take a year off and come to Japan to teach. I applied to the JET program, which is a teaching program run by the government in Japan. Many people try to get the job, but with my experience working for Canada Customs, my application was strong. I interviewed well and was placed in Izumisano, only 10km from my girlfriend’s house! Thank you, customs!

A year passed. My girlfriend was now my wife, and my daughter was on the way. I realized that if I was going to stay longer in Japan, I needed to go back to school. Fortunately, a friend I worked with had been in Japan for a long time, and he recommended a university to me. I went to night school in Umeda, studying for three hours after work every day. I used my experience as a teacher in Izumisano to find an interest in studying curriculum design. After I graduated, I began teaching at university, and then eventually at Shin-ai. Thank you, JET program!

In this way, my life has had many different chapters. I’ve used my experience in one chapter to open the door to the next one. I’ve had a lot of help from good friends, too. But I never said, “I don’t need this”, because time and time again my skills from one chapter have helped me in the next. Nothing is wasted.

And even today, I make very delicious sandwiches.