2023/Michael-23575

I was born in Anchorage, Alaska to my parents. I had a sister at the time who 13 years younger than me. 2 years later my brother was born and me and him had our casual sibling rivalry from there. We lived there for 5 years until my parents decided to move us to Japan where me and my brother were raised in Japanese customs and whatnot for 5 years until we had to move back to the states. In that time, my parents had to struggle with gun violence as they almost lost my sister to a house shooter. In the 2 years that my family lived in America we struggled financially as living expenses compared to Japan were higher. We also had to deal with being at the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak. Afterwards my family decided to move us back to Japan as it was much better compared to America. Unfortunately in that time my parents fell out and divorced at around winter of 2021. Throughout the entire time that we’ve been in Japan however we have found warm and welcoming people passionate about their community and what they do. I hold great respect for those who decided to serve our community and country as they’ve done so much for others but not enough for themselves.