Post visit presentation to the Community by River Matta, a student delegate in 2015
America is a great country. But in my opinion, not the greatest. And that is one of the main things that blew my mind from this trip. America lacks in many things. From technology, discipline, to education and so on. Going to Japan I learned so much. It’s widen my perspective on the entire world and I’m so glad that by going on this trip and having this experience, I’m able to feel smarter about my life decisions and my understandings of the world and the country I call home. Sadly to say, there are many things that happen in America that I believe will never compare to Japan. In America there is race discrimination. People scared of the police. People being shot for no reason. There is military propaganda everywhere. War sometimes for nothing. There are many things that happen in America that are just unheard of in Japan. Japan is peaceful. And it saddens me to know that America is not exactly the same. The people of Sausalito and Marin county are very lucky to be in such a beautiful place and live in some type of peace. There are still bad things that happen in Marin. But I’m here speaking for the United States of America. And I am not necessarily up here trying to rant off and say America sucks. Because that’s not true. I love the U.S. I love the city. I love the people. And I’ve had many great successes and have lived my life in this great place. And there are great things that America has that Japan does not. The amazing growth of different cultures and the overflowing population of different races. The U.S. has diversity and Japan does not! It creates such a nice sense of community being able to talk to another latino or black, white, whatever race and Japan doesn’t necessarily work the same way. The U.S. also has a much wider range of different types of jobs. Schools work differently. Positively and negatively. Anyways what I want to say overall is, going on this trip has only emphasized my motivation to stick to my future plans. To finish High school and go on to travel the world with my electronic music career. My host family did so much for me. They taught me many wonderful things that I will never forget. I got really close to my family and I can just say that I had such an amazing time in such a beautiful place and I can’t be anymore grateful to my parents for helping me with this and to the Sausalito Sister City program for truly changing my life. And for teaching me that there’s so much more going on around the world than just here at home. But I do have to say though that I’m kind of sad that at my age, I feel that I can’t put much of my faith in the future of our country. But that I hope that teens like me, can travel and learn to understand how to come home and benefit our generation and the evolution of America. I have a career that revolves entirely around international business. And I’m going to keep it that way. But for the people who will stay. And for the people that will grow with the United States. I only hope that this trip and that many trips to Japan and other countries ahead, will have changed your lives and change your ideas on how we can make this country, once again, the greatest country in the world.