Who am I?

It's always hard to define myself. Who do I think I am? Well, I'm Mayumi Kurotsu. I'm Japanese. I was born and raised in a city called Sendai, located in the north part of Japan, and this is the place where I spent most of my life. My family is all Japanese and I'm sure that they have never been to the United States. We Japanese speak only one language; Japanese. Thus, English is my second language and I've been learning it since I came to the U.S., but I have never felt comfortable with it yet...I just need more practice!

I came to the U.S. two years and a half ago. When I was in my high school, I deadly wanted to get out of my country. I didn't have any exact reason, but I just felt like Japan is too small, too tiny, and too limited to end my whole life. I thought I need to see the world, the real world. I could hardly speak English at that moment, but I decided to go to college in the U.S., hoping that everything would be alright ( it was not, actually). I went to a college located in near San Jose, California for two years and transferred to Hunter a week ago.

I'm into music. Because my dad is a guitarist, music has always been familiar to me and a part of my life since I was a newborn baby. He always played The Beatles to me, and thanks to him, I have been a huge fan of them since I was in my elementary school. When I was a middle school student, my favorite time of the day was when I listened to old legendary music with my dad after dinner, such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Simon & Garfunkel, Jeff Beck, and so on and on. Ever since, I have had a passion for music especially rock'n roll. I don't play any musical instrument (I used to play the piano a bit, though), but I love to listen to music. One of the biggest reasons why I chose New York as my second destination in the U.S. is I have many favorite bands and artists from New York! I love to go to shows, so I thought that New York can be a perfect place for me to get a lot of shows. One of the greatest shows recently I have been is Muse at Budokan in Japan. They were too amazing. I'm so looking forward to seeing them again at Madison Square Garden in March. Also, I'm going to some other my favorite band's shows in March as well, so excited!

I believe that media have had enormous power in the world in many ways. As a woman, I'm very interested in how much media have influenced women's lives, rights, and roles in the society. I want to learn not only negative sides but also positive sides of media's influence on women through this course.