By Tricia Hamilton
Remember how it felt when you went to your pre-departure orientation? How nervous you were? The questions you had? “What will Japan be like? What about the people I’ll miss at home? Teaching CHILDREN?”
In past years, as part of P-DOT, JETAA has asked departing JETs to write letters to their future selves, asking them to imagine their lives in Japan, what they’re excited about, and their goals for their time on JET.
JETAA then collects the letters in sealed envelopes and keeps them safe. About six months later, we then contact the genki JETs and send them the letters that they wrote to themselves. Our JETs are generally delighted to receive these letters and see how much they’ve changed over that short time!
In the past two years, our JETAA Executive has taken some time to hand write postcards to accompany the letters to our JETs. Our postcards vary based on who writes them – talking about Toronto, cool Japanese food, awesome festivals the JETs can experience – but in all of them, we all wish them well. This personal touch is important to our JETs in Japan, letting them know we are thinking of them, and that genki JETAAs are ready to welcome them when they do decide to come home!
Our combined JETAA Exec wrote 50 postcards during our January meeting and AGM, and we’re happy to report they are all finding their way to their recipients in Japan!
As well, we never throw out old letters unless instructed to, so if you think you haven’t received a letter to yourself you’d written, email membership@jetaatoronto.ca and we’ll be happy to take a look!