Having established my goal of going to college to get a librarian's license, I decided in the summer of my senior year of high school to only study the subjects I needed for the exam. Of course, this went against the high school's policy, and I got in a lot of trouble for it, getting called in by my homeroom teacher again. Anyhow, I was determined to somehow get through math, which I was not very good at, so my good friend and I decided to for them to watch me study outside of class like a math teacher would.
This friend had returned to Japan after living in Brazil during middle school due to their father's work. I had never lived abroad even spoken to many foreigners before, so this friend as one of my most important since they could share many exciting stories with me.
I think we probably took several months to work through the material recommended by our teacher have the teacher look at it in the staff room after school. I can’t say as to whether it was because these study sessions, but I managed to pass the university entrance exam and moved to Ibaraki Prefecture, far away from Nagasaki.
I don't know how it is now, but at that time, high school students in Kyushu were generally satisfied with universities in the Osaka area if they could not find a university they wanted to go to in Kyushu, so there were not that many students who wanted to go to university in the Kanto area. I remember that there were only three of us who took the entrance exam in Kanto, and once we passed Tokyo, I was ultimately the only one left since I went further north.
The friend I was studying math with ended up going to a private women's university in our hometown. I had assumed that she was going to a university outside of Nagasaki, so I asked her why she had decided to go there, feeling a little irritated. I remember the look on her face as she told me that she had talked it over with her parents and decided to go there.
Since I had already turned down my father's offer to go abroad, it had never occurred to me that there were many different family situations that influence where the children could go to college. I think children in rural areas probably still face many challenges beyond just those that are financial. I still think about my friend’s family situation from time to time, which I first learned about at that time.
I later received a high school teaching license in university and became a teacher at a high school in my hometown. I met my friend once when I was in my twenties, but I moved frequently, and we never saw each other again since we were unable to update our contact information.
I'd like to talk to her someday about that moment when I selfishly shared my feelings and assumptions with her.