Go Far East, young man

Alicia Robinson

Drew McCrary is trading a sandy beach full of surfers and swimmers

for a bustling foreign city with a rich cultural heritage, and he’s

excited about the change.

A Newport Beach lifeguard for six years and a cancer survivor,

McCrary, 22, left his native Costa Mesa on Wednesday for a job

teaching English near the Japanese city of Fukuoka.

Traveling is something McCrary has always wanted to do, but just

five years ago he and his family weren’t sure he’d ever leave a

hospital bed. In 1997, a grapefruit-sized tumor was discovered on

McCrary’s bile duct. Doctors diagnosed him with Burkitt’s lymphoma, a

cancer that develops rapidly and mainly appears in children.

He was treated with several surgeries and aggressive and painful

chemotherapy. That pain was in turn treated with drugs that caused

mood swings and hallucinations and left him suffering withdrawal

symptoms similar to a heroin addict’s.

But he recovered, making up missed schoolwork at home and

graduating with his class from Newport Harbor High School in 2000. He

also got back into the water, returning to his spot on the school’s

water polo team and trying out as a lifeguard for the city of Newport

Beach.

Still weak from his illness, McCrary didn’t make it his first time

out, but he tried again in 1999 and earned a spot.

“I got set back for a few years, but I came back and I got it,”

McCrary said. “It was a really big achievement for me.”

This spring, he graduated from UC Irvine with a bachelor’s degree

in philosophy and decided to go to Japan, where some of his friends

already have ventured to teach English.

McCrary said he’ll miss the camaraderie and public service of

being a lifeguard. It’s possible that he could return to the job when

he returns to the area, Newport Beach Lifeguard Capt. Jim Turner

said.

“He’s a good employee, and he does a good job,” Turner said. “We

have a handful of employees like that every year that take a year off

and go do wild and wonderful things.”

McCrary’s family and friends will miss him, but they’ll keep in

touch via e-mail. His father, Lynn McCrary, said he’s thankful his

son lived through a devastating illness, and he’ll be pleased with

any good that comes of the Japan adventure.

“You’re always happy for your child’s success,” he said. “It’s

difficult as a parent to think that you might outlive your child, so

having seen everything he’s gone through, if you’d asked me if we’d

be having this discussion seven years ago, I would have bet against

it.”

The trip will be right up Drew’s alley, said girlfriend Lindsey

Carter, 22, who knows him from UCI. “I think his friends would

definitely describe him as an adventurous soul,” Carter said. “Drew

always loves to do something different.”

While he has a few friends in Japan now, they’ll be several hours

away from where he’ll be working. McCrary speaks little Japanese, and

he’ll be living in a busy city of 1.2 million people, Kurume, where

tiny rooms in high-rise buildings are the norm.

“The point is immersion and a radically different environment,”

McCrary said. “I guess it’s just a testament to who I am and what I’m

all about that I can just pack up and go. The premise of me going is

that I get to create my life.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.