Senior Gray Dzielinski is moving to Tokyo after they graduate from Wando to go to a two-year language school where they will further progress their Japanese learning.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a long lasting career, but I really enjoyed learning languages and talking about languages,” Dzielinski said.

Dzielinski began plotting for this move in the sixth grade when their counselor told them it wouldn’t happen.

However, they began teaching theirselves a variety of languages, and eventually focused on Japanese.

“I wasn’t super focused on Japanese. I had Norwegian on the side, Russian on the side, ASL on the side, Spanish, Italian and Latin on the side. And through that immersion, it kind of taught me how I learn languages very specifically,” Dzielinksi said. “Now I just immerse myself in the language like listening to Japanese music, and Japanese podcasts. I talk with people in Japanese, like that’s how I learned the language now.”

Once they began the process of figuring out what they needed to do to move to Japan after high school, they realized it wasn’t that difficult.

“I feel like a lot of people want to travel but they’re intimidated by the process. And you shouldn’t be. A lot of people are intimidated by the process when it’s honestly not that hard,” Dzielinski said.

Dzielinski advises students to take the opportunity to do something new after graduation instead of the expected route, and that it will provide them with many new experiences that they wouldn’t have in a traditional four-year college setting.

“If you want to take a gap year or anything, I feel like it’s a really good opportunity. Because at least in Japan, if you start your language semester in October, it’s only like a year and three months as opposed to two years. So it’s a perfect gap year because it ends in March. If you don’t know what you want to do, maybe learn a language,” Dzielinski said.

The East Cooper Center for Advanced Studies has helped prepare Dzielinski for their future by giving them the opportunity to get their cosmetology degree and explore a field that they are interested in, while also obtaining their license right out of high school.

“I am in cosmetology right now. And although I’m not 100% sure it’s something I want to do for the rest of my life, It is an option because I don’t want to go to a four year college. So if I do retake it in Japan, it’ll be easier because I already will have my license here. So that could be my future career path,” Dzielinski said.

Dzielinski is confident that this experience will help them further their goals for the future, and get experiences that they wouldn’t have otherwise gained if they had taken a more traditional route after high school.

“I really wanted to do something with travel, which is an integral part because I really want to see every part of the world. Because I think staying in one place for your whole life, one state, one city, one country, it just completely limits you to the experiences that you’ll never know and that you’ll never have if you don’t go ahead and do those things.

I really want to see every part of the world. Because I think staying in one place for your whole life, one state, one city, one country, it just completely limits you to the experiences that you’ll never know and that you’ll never have if you don’t go ahead and do those things,” Dzielinski said.
design // Aseel Ibrahim