Speaker 1: Welcome to the Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communications What's Your Story podcast. In today's story, we hear from Kyohei Abe, professor of photography in the department of art and design. He talks about the challenges he faced when he made the decision to move 6,000 miles away from home. 

Speaker 2: Everything kind of starts, like, where I'm at right now, it's really how I first came here to the United States, which was about 20 years ago. I came here probably like early 20, 20s, like at 22, 23. And I had already graduated college in Japan in architecture. 

But I was always interested in Western culture and European culture. And because though I was studying architecture, I was always been pull out from my friends to go see movies, to see a show and all of that. So I'm really, really excited to kind of move and explore a bit more possibility. After I graduated college in Japan, studied architecture, I worked for little bit, maybe about a year to become architect. But, again, I really couldn't throw it away, my dream or the interest. I have to see it. 

I talked to my parents. And fortunately, my parents is very supportive, always been. They said, OK. So I decided to come to US. But the problem was that I didn't really know how to read or speak. 

After 20 some years, I got to this point I'm able to communicate. I can read. I can teach, of course, you know? Of course, that time in the early 90s, they didn't have any internet. So I have to do everything by myself. 

And it's only the saving point, the comfort that I had was that I have my parents. And if anything happens, I can always call them and ask for help or I can always go back. But that's it. 

Of course, after leaving, partially me, but partially my culture, partially with my age as well, where I was like mid-20s where I think had some sort of feeling that I don't want to show my weakness, you know? At this point, I don't really care much, you know? Like, weakness is actually is my strengths, you know? 

In Japanese we have a saying, an old Japanese saying called [JAPANESE SPEECH], which is seven falls and eight stand up. And so that's always in my sort of like a philosophy that I teach my students in a classroom or through a project and even through mentorship or conversations, telling them that you have to really try and not fall. Like, myself or anyone, even your friends, you know, that those people always for you to kind of help, to mentor you to be able to get up and move forward. 

So I think I really learned a lot. And I think it's where I'm at right now is because of that experience, because I moved from Japan to here, you know, 6,000 miles away with nothing pretty much. And then there was nothing around me. It was pretty much just me. That was really, really a major impact on my life. 

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