[No. 60] Yoko Sonoda

"During your four years at university, please find good friends, good teachers, and good books."

These are the words spoken by the President at the time, Dr. Tadao Ishikawa, at the entrance ceremony. Looking back now, my days at university and graduate school were truly a series of these "good encounters."

The reason I chose the Faculty of Science and Technology was simple: I liked mathematics and science. During my junior and senior high school years, I was fortunate to be taught by many wonderful and respectable teachers, which made me want to become a junior or senior high school teacher. And so, to become a teacher of the science subjects I loved, I aimed for the Faculty of Science and Technology. Having spent a relaxed and carefree 12 years from elementary to senior high school at a Catholic girls' school with an affiliated university, I was reluctant to leave my beloved alma mater. However, its university did not have a science and technology faculty, so I decided to take the entrance exams for other universities. Fortunately, I was accepted into several universities. From among them, I chose Keio University, drawn by its tradition and school spirit, and also because many of my relatives, from my grandfather to, most recently, my older brother, had studied at the Juku.

After enrolling, the first thing was to choose a club. Observing my brother and other senior students at the Juku, I knew that clubs played a large part in university life. Moreover, in the case of Keio University, it seemed that relationships, including those with senior and junior alumni, would continue long after graduation through what is called the Mita-kai. So, I thought I had to choose carefully. Having often belonged to small clubs by chance until then, I wanted to learn various things, such as interpersonal relationships, by "sticking with a large club for four years," and decided to choose from among the large ones. Then, wanting to challenge myself with something I had never done before, I knocked on the door of the Wagner Society Orchestra and joined the percussion section.

The Keio University Wagner Society's Berlin performance in February 1990 (I am playing the bass drum).

As I had expected, the Wagner Society came to occupy a large part of my university life. With several performances a year and the practices leading up to them, training camps, and concert tours, it was demanding both in terms of time and physical stamina, and balancing it with my studies in the Faculty of Science and Technology, which was busier than other faculties, was tough. Furthermore, there were endless worries about technical skills and personal relationships, and there were times when I felt I was continuing only out of a stubborn desire to "stick with a large club for four years." Nevertheless, things that I agonized over seriously at the time have become precious experiences and fond memories when I look back on them later. I had various experiences, gained lifelong friends with whom I could talk about anything, and also acquired a lifelong hobby in music. Above all, the memories of creating music together while sharing joys and hardships, the concert tours to the Kansai region and Europe, and the trips my close group of girlfriends and I took, extending our journey to the Sanyo region or traveling in Europe after the concert tours, have become lifelong treasures.

Although I had chosen a large club, my choice of department was the complete opposite. Belonging to Group III (Editor's note: At that time, admission was by group, not by school), I had to choose between the large Department of Applied Chemistry and the small Department of Chemistry. In a first-year class called "Introduction to Science and Technology," I was captivated by a talk from Professor Suehiro Iwata, and I chose the Department of Chemistry, to which Professor Iwata's laboratory belonged.

The small Department of Chemistry had a cozy, at-home atmosphere, and by the third and fourth years, we all knew each other, not just our classmates but also the professors and senior and junior students. The professors provided us with meticulous and thorough guidance. When I advanced to my fourth year, I joined the Iwata Laboratory of theoretical chemistry, just as I had hoped. Instead of experiments, I used computers to research interstellar molecules and the rotation of methyl groups within molecules. Unlike typical university students, my days were spent constantly commuting to the Yagami campus, with no summer vacation or Saturdays off. But I believe the reason it wasn't a hardship at all was thanks to the members of the Kaya, Iwata, and Yabushita laboratories, who were as close as family, and the professors who taught me the joy of research. The trips our lab took for academic conferences in different regions are also among my unforgettable memories.

When I was asked to write a 1,200- to 2,000-character manuscript, I was initially worried, thinking, "Can I really write that much?" But once I started, I found I had too many fun memories and precious experiences, and my writing became rambling. I actually had more trouble cutting things out. I suppose that just goes to show how blessed my student life was, filled with so many "good encounters." Now, my dream has come true. Starting with a part-time lecturer position at Keio Senior High School while I was in graduate school, and after working at Keio Shonan Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School after obtaining my degree, I am now teaching at Keio Senior High School. There are many things that happen at school, but every day is fulfilling. I am grateful for the many "good encounters" that have been the source of these blessed days from my student years to the present, and at the same time, I hope that my own students will also lead colorful student lives and futures filled with "good encounters."