Years before Georgia recruited her to play tennis, 23-year-old Naoko Ueshima grew up in Japan with the experience of earthquakes.
One night when I was 7, I had a nightmare and went to my parents’ bed. Later that night, the Kobe earthquake struck, with an impact of 7.2 on the Richter scale. A huge bookshelf fell on my bed, and if I hadn’t gone to my parents, I would have been smashed under it. It was scary, but none of my closest family was injured.
That was on Jan. 17, 1995, so every year when Jan. 17 comes around, I think about that, and I pray for all the people still trying to recover from that. Whenever I saw news of an earthquake or tsunami, I felt terrible. I knew how horrible and scary it is.
In the U.S., I was overwhelmed with the excitement of starting college tennis and wasn’t really thinking about earthquakes. I only went home twice a year.
I finished my undergraduate degree in advertising last year, and with a year of my athletic scholarship remaining, I enrolled in UGA’s masters program for sports management.
While I’ve played tennis since I was 8, and tennis has given me every opportunity, I have always been a fan of all sports and knew I wanted a sports career. My dream job would be in corporate partnership in the field of sports and deal with sponsorships and marketing at a global level. It’s so competitive, but I have advantages of being bilingual, and the leadership and teamwork from playing an NCAA Division I sport.
Major American sports have offices in Japan, and baseball is a huge sport in Japan. I was really honored to receive a three-month internship with MLB Japan later this year. I found that out in early March.
On March 11, I was on the gym treadmill at UGA when one of the trainers asked if my family was OK. I had no idea the earthquake and tsunami had happened overnight. I sprinted back to contact my parents by phone and Skype.
My parents live about 500 miles from the epicenter. Fortunately, I confirmed their safety and that of my sister Tomoko, who was home from her school in Tokyo, where the impact was bigger. It was nerve-racking waiting to find out my tennis friends were also safe.
Watching on TV, I can’t believe it’s my country. It’s like something in a disaster movie.
I remain excited about moving to Tokyo in late 2011 for my internship. I’ll live with Tomoko in her apartment. Life is limited, and I want to enjoy this precious time as much as possible with my family. I’m crossing my fingers that nothing big is going to happen.
-- Reported by Michelle Hiskey
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