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The
following essay was written by Mami Yamada's son,
Nasa Yamada, when he was in 6th grade. You will find the
original at http://yamadamami.com/
Influential
Person
by Nasa Yamada
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In
this essay, I will tell you about my mother, Mami Yamada.
Mami Yamada has influenced me a lot, in my life.
Mami
Yamada was born on February 27, 1960 in Nagano prefecture,
Japan. Her father Hiroshi Suzuki was a government officer,
and her mother Takae Suzuki was a housewife. She also had
one brother.
In
her early life, she had many difficulties. She could not
get familiar with the school. She was the smallest and
lightest in the whole class, but she had to eat the same
amount of food as the biggest people in the grade. In
Japanese schools, you had to finish eating or you even had
to stay in after school to finish eating your lunch! When
she had the 1st class of math, the teacher said “there's
one apple. There's one more apple. All together there are
two apples, so that 1+1=2.” But she did not think so.
She thought that an apple could be big or small or green
or red or even rotten, so it is weird to count any apple
as ‘1’, said that to the teacher. Then the teacher
said it is not good to say your opinion, believe what the
teacher says, and had to stay out from her 1st class!
Her
dream was to become a writer, and she decided this when
she was 9 years old. Her class had a summer vacation
project, where most kids studied things such as flowers.
But what she did was; she made a booklet with 5 short
stories she had written. Teachers and students who read
this thought those were great stories, and even the
principal came to read it and some students asked her for
autography! And she did become an author, and now she has
written many books.
She
also wrote many newspaper articles, and also articles on
India while she was living there. Some of her books are on
magic. While she was living in India, she interviewed
magicians and wrote books on them. One book called
“Mango No Ki” which means Mango Tree, is about a magic
that only one magician in India can do, where you grow a
mango from no where!
When
you ask Mami “who influenced you?” she says that it is
the hardest question to her, since no one has ever in her
whole life influenced her, since she was independent from
when she was in elementary school.
Mami
married when she was 23. She met my father Masami when she
was studying abroad in Australia. She met him in a bird
sanctuary. When she was bird watching, it suddenly started
pouring. She ran to a small Kodak photo shop, then there
she saw my father. They didn’t say anything to each
other, and when the rain stopped, they just went back to
watch birds, again. But later when Mami went back to Japan
to renew her visa, she was amazed. At her house, her
father Hiroshi showed her the newspaper, where the man at
the Kodak shop was on! Then later on, they met and then
soon, they married.
When
I asked Mami “what do you want to be if you could change
your life over?” she says “I don’t even want to
change my life over again.” She says this since she is
happy with her life.
Most
of my family has an impression on Mami that she is strong,
and does not be down for a long time. I also think that it
is amazing she can speak English, because she only learned
it seriously from when she was around 20.
Mami
Yamada has influenced me in many ways. I think my
personality is very similar to my mother's, and some
people say I also look like her.
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