In Johannesburg, Reflecting on My Life

by Hiroko Miyamura

To come to think of “my life,” I probably should be writing this kind of article a year from now, rather than now, since I will have to make a “major decision” by the end of this year.

I decided to take a year off from work and enrolled myself in the

fine arts programme at “Wits” University in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was finishing up my four-month fellowship from the United Nations (UN). I have worked for the UN Secretariat for over 15 years, mostly as a political officer/analyst based in New York, and also took part in peacekeeping operations in Cambodia (1992-93), Bosnia & Herzegovina (1994-95) and East Timor (2000-02) over the years. I chose a career at the UN because I desperately needed to get myself out of Japan and work legally overseas, ”see the world” and work in an international environment, since I did not think I could cope in a mono-cultural environment.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be involved in the arts, and aspired to go to art school after high school, but coming from a conservative middle-class family, my mother was adamantly against my going to art school, which she bizarrely equated with drugs and promiscuity. I wasn’t bold enough to abandon my family and do it on my own, and ended up at a “regular” university in Tokyo, majoring in History and Political Science.

While I was very upset that I couldn’t go to art school, I concentrated on my “escape Japan” plan. Since one needed to get a Master’s degree to apply to the UN, I worked for a few years after university to save money to go to graduate school, and also applied to a number of scholarships and finally went to graduate school overseas when I was 27. After getting my Master’s degree, I applied to the UN and promptly got in.

There are moments of gratification working at the UN: I was an electoral observer for the first non-racial elections in South Africa in 1994 and witnessed Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as the first President of a free South Africa; took part in the ushering of Cambodia and East Timor into the international community; attended the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo when former Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations won the prize in 2001. I did get to witness history in the making. Yet, most of the time, working for the UN has been a battle with dealing with incompetence, frustration and hypocrisy.

This is actually the third time I am at a “crossroads” as to what to do with my life, and contemplating a life in the arts. The first was when I got a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation to go to graduate school. I could have chosen to do Fine Arts instead of International Relations which I ended up doing so that I could apply to the UN. At the time, my family was on welfare after my father passed away, I was being very practical and figured that by joining the UN, I could leave Japan as well as become financially independent and be secure for the rest of my life. 

The second instance was about 9 years ago when I took about 6 months off from work. I was stressed out at work and was literally spending most of my waking hours, including weekends, at work. During my time off, I stayed in New York and went to art school part-time. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt like I “recovered” myself. I seriously toyed with the idea of taking another 2-3 years off to go to art school “properly,” but again, at the end of the day, my fear of financial insecurity got the better of me, and I told myself I was not going to allow myself to overwork, and planned to take art classes on weekends <see photo> and satiate my “art appetite” that way. This plan worked for a while, but not for too long. In recent years, I was back to the work grind (but not as bad as 9 years ago).

Now I really want to stay on here in South Africa and pursue an arts career. I am seriously thinking to seek a career if not as an artist, maybe in Art Therapy. But there are many issues to deal with. Some say you only have one life, so live without regrets. I just don’t know whether I will end up living with regrets by not pursuing my passion, or have regrets that I did not do proper financial planning for my old age. So dear readers, what advice do you have for me?

I am very happy here in Johannesburg, despite the fact that I recently had my purse and cell phone stolen, and my car broken into (a rite of passage in “Joburg”)!!

Bio
Born in Yokohama, Japan.
Education:  St. Maur International School (elementary to high school); Sophia University BA Political Science/History; London School of Economics and Political Science M.Sc. (Master of Science) International Relations.
Currently on leave from work as the Senior Political/Electoral Affairs Officer at the Electoral Assistance Division, Department of Political Affairs, United Nations Secretariat in New York.