Why yes please, I'd love another A with a side of gaman.

Addictions and vices can be quite tricky for some people and prove outright disastrous for others. I've considered myself rather fortunate to have avoided acquiring any nasty ones. Rather, I'm more possessing of the type of vice of giving an 'inappropriate naught joke from time to time' type of person. Innuendos are everywhere. I never in a million years would have believed myself to be one of those overachieving, studious types who put her everything into her work. Now that's not to say I haven't tried my hardest in the past, or have sacrificed to do well. But here in Japan for some reason I have found it in me to abscond from social events just to spend extra time perfecting my work for school. Let me repeat for those who know me and may have allowed themselves to believe their eyes to have just lied to them : Allyson in Japan puts school above all else including travelling and spending time with friends.
     There is just something about being here and observing the care and dedication the majority of Tokyoites put into their work that has rubbed off on me. Thanks to my mom's diligent and unceasing work-ethic I have inherited said ethic and have been in possession, for as long as I can remember, the dedication to things which help pay the bills. I am the gal who goes to work regardless of illness, injury, migraine, headache, GI distress, stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, no sleep, hangover, come what may.  However, school hasn't always been one of those things that work-ethic spilled over into historically. However since I have been here and committed to seeing this scholastic endeavor through to the end I have put all my effort in to it. And... it has been paying off. 
     I wonder if I am addicted to getting A's; of the respect from others and myself of an unquestionable job well done. I really think the perseverance and dedication of the sarariiman and Office Ladies walking in heels braving the rain, snow, and over packed trains each day to commute to work, putting in more than human hours of overtime has rubbed off on me in a very positive way. Also, I wonder if knowing how much my family has sacrificed to help get me where I am is a part of it? Japanese tend to have a more concern and respect for the people in their in-circles who depend on them for doing their best... Have I inherited the Japanese gaman?

(Wikipedia defines it:"gaman(我慢^?) is a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin which means "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity".^[1] The term is generally translated as "perseverance", "patience", tolerance, or "self-denial".^[2] A related term, gamanzuyoi (我慢強い gaman-tsuyoi^?), a compound with tsuyoi (strong), means "suffering the unbearable" or having a high capacity for a kind of stoic endurance.^[3]

Gaman is variously described as a "law,"^[4] a "virtue,"^[5] an "ethos,"^[6] a "trait,"^[7] etc. It means to do one's best in distressed times and to maintain self-control and discipline.)