Dreams come true

In April 2004, Miyako Matsuki entered Soka University with aims to become a flight attendant and learn the international sociology. She has always dreamed of being a flight attendant since she was little. She started to hope to go all over the world and know about other countries’ culture because of her parents. Her parents often took her to art museums and theaters, exposing her to various kinds of art. It inspired her a lot and made her internationally minded. When she was an elementary school student, she understood she could be a flight attendant, through a TV program. She realized that the job would offer her anything that she wanted to do in the future.
5 years later, she was offered a ground staff position at ANA, one of the largest airlines in Japan. It was not as a flight attendant but she says, "Since I started studying at this campus, my perspective got broader. To become a flight attendant should not have been the only one future dream of mine. Also, I noticed there were various types of jobs and roles in order to fly a plane, each of them is irreplaceable. So, for me, there is no difference between being a flight attendant and being a ground staff. I feel so lucky to work at the place where people in the world come and go. "
Actually, the job is not the only thing that she gained during college. When she started the college life, she set 8 goals to complete. The goals were to: 1) become a student with outstanding academic results in all of the semesters, 2) take advantage of Soka’s scholarship program, 3) go study abroad, 4) get the TOEIC score over 900 points, 5) gain Soka University Da Vinci prize that honors the achievements of outstanding students, 6) stick with Soka’s cheerleading squad for 3 years, 7) support juniors who hope to study abroad after her overseas education, 8) help juniors with their job search after she gets a job offer. She achieved all of them and what’s more, she made her dream come true.
Why could she make it? Although she must be a goal setter, it could be said that she is an ordinary person in some ways. In addition to this, her English level was below average in Soka University when in her freshman year. She didn’t even have such confidence to accomplish the goals when she decided them. All she did was strive for them as much as she could.
People might guess that she must have had a lot of time to do that. It doesn’t seem to be true. She was a member of Soka’s cheerleading squad and in charge of the care of international students in the dorm. After class, she went to practice cheerleading and after practice, she went back to the dorm in order to take care of the students. So, she didn’t have enough time to study. That’s why she often had to work all through the night. Her good point was that she could organize her schedule. She clarified ‘what’ she had to do by ‘when’. And again, she made a lot of efforts for each of the goals. The amazing thing is that she kept at it for these 5 years.
Her outstanding achievements are well deserved and show that it is important to make untiring efforts, set concrete goals and ultimately act. Making exertions is itself action. This means she was serious, so she took action and then she made achievements.
She is now supporting juniors in their job search, their preparation to study abroad and their advisement on improving English.
Says Matsuki: “Through the opportunity that I provide consultation for juniors, I got a new dream. I’m now thinking of becoming a career counselor or a counselor for helping people who desire to study abroad after I gain experience in the company. It’d be really challenging if I could help people with their dreams.” Her new dream must come out true someday.