I was a personal fitness trainer for eleven years.  I enjoyed my career immensely and felt very close and invested in each client. Often in an effort to distract me, and allow themselves a much-needed break, a client would ask me to tell them a story. A request I rarely refused.

I would be described as a shy person and quiet person. I am not afraid of people though I prefer to mix and mingle within my own mind. During the inevitable social occasions, however, my defense mechanism within a crowd of people is to tell stories. I feel safe within a story. A story feels separate from me. It might be about me, it might reveal embarrassing personal flaws and controversial opinions, but if someone felt the need to judge, they could judge the story, not me.

The stories I tell are true. I may prefer to keep to myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m not paying close attention to people and my surroundings. My stories are about what surprises me, what I find odd in the world, my faith in God, and my greatest fears. They are weaved from moments I dared to test the boundaries of my comfort zone to experience a nugget of expanded life. I have found immense pleasure in exploring my world and my heart through stories. Through words a person might laugh, or think a new thought, or tear up, or even feel angry. Oh, the power of words! The power of story!

I have lived the majority of my life near San Antonio, Texas. My parents feared, with the vast population of military personnel stationed in and around the area, that one of them might someday swoop me up and whisk me away to far off lands. They were right. In 2008 I married Dave, and in turn, married into a life with the United States Air Force. Our first assignment was in Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. Far off lands here I come!

On the day I left Texas, someone close to me said ‘Keep telling stories. I want to hear them.’

I will. I’ve uncovered a new and living passion to tell them.

I have compiled the stories of our adventures in Japan one piece at a time: From the day we left the United States behind, to our travels through Japan, South Korea, China, and Hong Kong, to the birth of our first child, to the tumultuous March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. My blog isn’t limited to stories of Japan. There are many more stories I’m eager to share. In the meantime, however, a few Japan stories are posted here, some are being edited in the hopes of publishing, and others are still bouncing around in my head.

I admit after all these years I’m not so shy anymore. Maybe now I would be described as a quiet, Christian, yoga-pant-wearing, exercise-aholic, gluten-free (not by choice trust me), stay-at-home, mother of two, who spends every precious second of the kids’ daily nap time typing away on the computer. I still hide inside my stories. And through them I want to share my journey with you. Thank you for listening.

Carrie Kempisty