Reflecting on my daily life and memories with my friends during this summer vacation, I got to thinking about life experiences and achievements. The fishing trip made me realize that getting something requires hard work and waiting, and that you can’t have it all.
I learned something from my ordinary life. This summer vacation gave me a lot to think about, and although nothing extraordinary happened, there were a lot of things that I noticed in ordinary days. I’m going to write down some of them.
During my vacation, I took one seasonal class and worked part-time at an academy. I also went to the beach during the holidays, and I met a lot of my friends during the breaks when I was down at home. I played soccer and basketball just like I did in high school. There was a friend of mine that I had known since elementary school, and I met him and we talked a lot about our lives. When I talk to him, I always think of the song “That was then”. Because when you’re talking about the past, you’re really saying, ‘Yeah, that’s what it was like…’, ‘That’s what it was like…’. The lyrics of this song, which starts with ‘I was so young, I didn’t know what I was doing…’ make me feel like it’s perfect to sing now.
When I think about things that have gone by, I feel like I was so young and didn’t know what I was doing. I don’t worry about what I’m doing, I just do it, rather than thinking about whether it will benefit me or not. Now, before I do anything, I worry about what will happen if I do it and how important it is to me. I often get stuck in the thought process. However, until I do something, I don’t know what I’m going to get out of it, so sometimes I just do what comes to mind.
They say it’s wise to hesitate or plan before you start something. I’ve had my fair share of failures when I was younger, and I’m cautious now. But being cautious didn’t necessarily lead to good results. In fact, there were moments when my planning led me to miss opportunities to make choices and dulled my will to accomplish something. That’s why sometimes it pays to keep things simple and improvise. In the end, what matters in life is that when you try something, whether it turns out as expected or not, it pushes you forward.
Sometimes, as the song goes, “It’s a tough world out there…” and everything in it just seems so hard. In such cases, I usually meet up with friends, have a drink, forget about my troubles, and start the next day again. One day, I found myself feeling frustrated for no reason. As usual, we had a few drinks and talked about things. We laughed about the past and worried about the future. We were just chatting, and I started to wonder if there was anything I could do to break out of my routine. Then I remembered a time when I went on an unplanned trip with my friends. We hadn’t decided where we were going or what we were going to do, we just decided to show up at Tokyo Station. We just got together, bought the fastest train ticket we could find, and decided to go to Osaka. That’s how we got there and back, and it was exciting and fun in its own way. I remembered that when I wanted to go somewhere, I didn’t think about whether I should go or not, or where I should go. So I decided that this time, if I had a place in mind, I would just go there without thinking about it.
As we were walking around, my friend suggested we go fishing, and for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to go with my first thought. He said he’d call me when he woke up the next day, so I went home and fell asleep. When I woke up the next day, I sobered up and realized that what I had said yesterday was just a drunken rant. I didn’t feel like I was going fishing, I felt like I was reeled in like a fish, so I let go of my expectations, but luckily my friend contacted me and we went fishing.
The sun was shining like a normal summer day, but it was windy, so it was a nice day. Once we got in the car and got out of the city, my frustration seemed to dissipate somewhat. I drove for about an hour and arrived at a reservoir outside of Tokyo around lunchtime. I was met by an old man who owned a fishing spot that my friend knew. We were to fish from a floating platform on the reservoir. I loaded up my fishing rods and other luggage in a small boat and rowed to the platform. I unpacked my gear and got ready to fish. As we were getting ready to fish, the old man from earlier brought us some food. We ate and then started fishing. I had to attach a worm and throw it to the right place, but it was my first time, so it wasn’t easy. After a few attempts with the help of my friend, I was able to cast the rod with some success. Anyway, I cast the worm and sat down to wait for the fish to bite. It was my first time, so I was even more greedy. I couldn’t wait to catch a fish. After sitting there for an hour or two, I got bored and started to think that I hadn’t come for the right reasons. However, my friend told me that it was nothing compared to waiting, so I decided to just relax and wait. As I sat there, I noticed the scenery around me. It wasn’t a great view, but I felt relaxed looking at the open space without thinking about anything.
While I was waiting and talking to my friend, my fishing rod suddenly shook. I grabbed the rod and saw that a fish was eating a worm. It was a small fish called a nuchi, but it wasn’t just a small fish to me. It was the first fish I had ever caught in my life.
That night, before I fell asleep, I thought about it. The feeling of reeling in the fish was a first, but somehow it didn’t feel like a first. As I thought about that feeling, I realized that getting something out of life could be likened to catching a fish in fishing. When you go fishing, you don’t just sit down with a fishing pole and hope to catch a fish. Similarly, in life, just because you want to get something and try to get it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. Things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get anything. Whether it’s a good grade, the approval or affection of others, or money, it’s good to think twice before you try to get it. Sometimes you can’t get it. That you can’t get everything you want, and that it takes effort and waiting to get something.
After that day when I compared life to fishing, I decided to slow down a bit. I realized that living fast, chasing results at every turn, was burning me out. From now on, I vowed to take my time with everything I do and enjoy the small accomplishments along the way. Just as the long wait to catch a fish is not in vain, I decided to remember that the small moments in life are important.
