Hello everyone,
Do you recall a challenging, but
rewarding and invaluable experience that you’ve had in your life time? For me,
one such experience happened just this past week.
I must say going on the business trip as
a crew for five days last week was an opportunity that I would never have had
the chance to do if I was in Japan.
Today, I am going to share some
experiences I had and the things I learned from the trip.
1. Preparation
As I mentioned to you in my previous
blog, my supervisor, Daniel, needed my help
to organize this very crucial event for Football BC. As a result, I had an
opportunity to work longer even after I finished my contract, which made me
extremely happy. But at the same time, it caused me a lot of pressure because
everybody sees me as a crew, not an intern. However, I always keep it in mind
as long as I prepare thoroughly I am sure that I would make up for any lack of
language problem with perseverance and hard work. In addition, Daniel describes
me as someone who is on the ball, whose skill is critical to the success of our
trip. So, I had my heart set on accepting the challenging but rewarding offer.
One of the things I did to help Daniel
prepare before the trip was to research great restaurants to accommodate over
100 people including players and coaches, and organize and compile the rooming
list and flight information. Thanks to these tasks, I was able to get the
picture of what’s going on and who would be participating in the High Roller
Football Showdown in Las Vegas in advance. In the end, I felt like I was an
indispensable team member as I stayed top of all the information and itinerary.
To sum up, preparation is the
key to succeed before anything else.
2. Responsibility
Having huge responsibilities might make
some people stressed out and even get sick. In my case, taking responsibility
makes me grow as an individual and learn new things I did not know before.
Moreover, I feel like I am contributing to Football BC and being expected to
complete all my tasks and I really wanted to live up to their expectations. I
went into this with a positive attitude about undertaking these challenging
tasks.
During the trip, I had a lot of duties to
deal with such as taking pictures of players, shooting and cutting videos and
helping Daniel with the meal set-up for all the players and coaches. When it
comes to taking pictures, I felt it was a huge part of everything because I can
see afterwards that thousands of people went to look at the pictures of players
I took and some of them might set the pictures on display of their cell phone
and post them on Facebook. At the time, I was very focused on our Team BC games
and was careful not to miss any important players like touchdowns or
interceptions. My biggest responsibility was to cut videos quickly and
attractively.
If you are interested in watching them, please check out Official
Football BC Channel.
When I played soccer in high school, I
wanted to watch my great performances as soon as possible and show them to my
friends and family in order to explain how great a game I had. So, I felt it
was really important that we could deliver the post-game videos as quickly as
possible. I am not sure everyone is satisfied with these videos I cut, but, I
hope I could convey their great performances to viewers. I realized that taking responsibility is the price
of greatness and for my own happiness.
3. Cooperation
I
learned how essential cooperation is to succeed in everything. Throughout the
trip, I was overwhelmed again by Daniel’s leadership and diligence. He told
Sara, Michiko, and myself the daily schedule accurately and clearly the day
before the games. Even better, he repeated our duties right before the games,
which reminded us of what we had to do as well as praised and encouraged us to
work smoothly. I really admire him and want to catch up with him in the future.
Concerning
Team BC players, I was so impressed because they showed us extremely amazing
games even though they just practiced together one day. I felt as if they
played football on the same team for years. The biggest reason why they built
strong teamwork for a short period is, needless to say, thanks to seasoned and
reliable coaches. I watched each game next to the coaches. It seemed that each
coach had an incredibly strong passion to want the players to be able to
deliver great performances and win each game. At the same time, each player
tried to live up to their expectation and follow their direction. As a result,
U 16 and U 18 team was able to record wins over very tough American teams. What
I learned from the trip is that great achievements are never just a single effort. They are done by a
team of people who see the same direction.
4. Appreciation
I
would really like to say thank you to everybody who accepted and supported me
warmly even though I had a different background from everyone. Without their
great help, I would not have been so satisfied with this trip.
Team BC players
Some
of the players knew me from the blog or my previous interview videos with
Masaki Kawanami and Michael Calvert and called out to me by name (Luke) or in
greeting, which made me happy. I appreciate it.
Thanks
for entertaining me with such exciting games. I won’t forget the Team BC games
I watched in Las Vegas.
Team BC coaches
I
must say I am a very lucky person to get to meet and work with well-known
coaches including previous and current BC Lions players. Each coach is very
kind to me and praised my performance greatly and asked me about Japanese
culture. Thanks to them, I was able to feel like a real contributor to Team BC.
Thank you very much for all of your kindness.
Team BC staff
I
spent most of the time supporting players with Team BC staff. So, I really
appreciate them helping me out and accepting my opinions even though I asked
for clarification many times because of my language problem. Sometimes, I feel frustrated
that I cannot make myself understood in English. But, thanks to you guys, I did
not feel that way on this trip. I cannot thank you enough.
Finally, there is one thing I have to tell
you.
I
have made up my mind to go back to Japan to pursue my dream job in the near
future. So, this might be my final posting to this blog. I really appreciate
you reading my blog all the time and giving me some positive feedback.
Throughout the blog, I was able to express my feeling about football clearly as
well as improve my writing skills. I want to thank Daniel for giving me this great
opportunity. If you have a chance to come to Japan, please let me know so that
I can guide you, which is a small token of my appreciation. Please do not
forget my quote “All your
efforts will pay off as long as you do your best without giving up.”
Thank you so much up to today. I wish you all the best in the future. Have a
wonderful day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment