Return to Origins Iolite vol.1 Editorial Postscript

``Happy birthday! How are you doing?'' The other day, I received a call from a friend from my school days. Although we only see each other once every 2-3 years, we are very important to each other and can best be described as close friends. When he was a student, for some reason he was appointed captain of the baseball club, and at the time he was vice president.

Unlike me, he was an excellent person who even served as the student council president. He was an important figure who shared the hardships of founding a baseball club in a school that did not have a baseball club and establishing the club in a situation where there was no environment conducive to playing baseball.

To make myself bigger, I packed two cups of rice in a bento box and brought side dishes in another box. For practice, I ran just 5km away from school.

I raced him every day, a 10km round trip. Looking back, Sobe is not something that everyone can experience, and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they were partners who shared their joys and sorrows. What I still remember is that he was a person who read a lot, and that he actively participated in disaster relief efforts.

Since then, he has been a good rival and I have learned a lot from him.