Arborist/Floral Designer

My dream job is to be an arborist or floral designer.

Since I was a child, I have loved writing and cutting tree branches.

I always cut tree branches in the backyard. I am very happy when I interact with trees and flowers. Am I a weird person?

Do you know the movie Edward Scissorhands (1990)? It is one of my favorite movies. I want to be like Edward Scissorhands.😅

Life is unpredictable. During the senior year of high school, I had to decide my career path. My high school was a former all boys’ school. Soon after the school started accepting female students, I entered and first studied in the STEM course. There were over 250 male students. I think I was one of 17 female students.

How was your high school life? Do you have any high school love story?

Truly I don’t have any love story that I can share with others.🤣

Instead of a love story, I had many male friends. My female friend got pregnant while still in high school and married soon after graduating from high school. I can’t believe that her son is now an adult. 😲

Until the last moment before I applied to the university, I wanted to go to a technical school to become a certified arborist or to join the Japan Self-Defense Forces (military).

However, my high school teacher and parents advised me to go to university. Also, my childhood friend said to me to go to the same school. That’s why I studied for the university entrance exam and entered to the same school with my childhood friend.

As a university student, I taught Japanese language and culture to foreigners (mostly Brazilians and Peruvians) in my hometown and worked as a coordinator for exchange students. Teaching was fun, so I decided to get teacher certifications.

For over 13 years, I have been teaching. But I don’t know if I can wait to be an arborist until I turn 65. Compared to the teaching job, tree trimming and gardening jobs are physically harder.

Probably I may be a floral designer. I used to practice Japanese flower arrangement (Ikebana 生け花 / Kado 華道) to become a certified teacher. I sometimes exhibited my flower arrangements at the local museum event.

I want to do it again when I have free time.😊

My floral arrangement ↓

Photos by LILI