"Happy birthday! How are you?" The other day, I received a call from a friend from my school days. I only see him once every 2-3 years, but he is a very important person to me, and the word "best friend" is appropriate.
During my school days, I was appointed captain of the baseball team and he was the vice captain at the time. Unlike me, he was an excellent person who also served as student council president. He was an important person who shared the struggle of establishing a baseball team in a school that did not have one, and with the lack of an environment to play baseball.
To build up my body, I packed two cups of rice in a lunch box and brought side dishes in another lunch box. For practice, I ran to a place exactly 5km away from the school. I competed with him every day for a 10km round trip.
Looking back, starting a team is not something that everyone can experience, and it was a great sense of accomplishment. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he was a partner who shared the good times and the bad. What I still remember is that he was a good reader and actively participated in support for disaster-stricken areas. Even back then, we were good rivals, but I learned a lot from him.
After a casual conversation over dinner, I told him about something I saw on the way home the other day, and we had even more lively talk than I expected.
One day, a man who was about to miss his train was running up the escalator.
Just as the departure melody stopped, the man arrived at the platform, patted his shoulders in relief, and walked to board the train, but the train doors closed right in front of him.
He may have been running for a very long time, not being able to catch the train. So why did he take a breather in relief when he saw the train in front of him?
Why didn't he run through until the very end without giving up?
If there had been a really important reason for him to get on the train he was trying to catch, wouldn't the outcome have been different?
I'm aware that I'm taking the event of missing the train in a tedious way, but I hope you'll bear with me.
He shared the good times and bad times with me in our student days, and now he works for a trading company and is now an employee of an NPO. We knew that next-generation technologies such as blockchain technology and VR/XR are being used for social welfare, social contribution, and support, and we shared a drink and said that we would be happy to work together on contributing to society after we have both grown in our current environments.
Since his student days, he has been interested in contributing to society and is working on what he is most passionate about, so I think he will be able to continue to achieve his dreams in the near future. He may have already achieved them.
With this issue, Iolite has celebrated its first anniversary. The experience of founding the club has brought us new and valuable experience in the form of the launch of the magazine over time.
I am grateful to the many people who have supported us and allowed us to continue publishing as a regular publication, and I am once again proud of the Iolite team.
I truly believe that the "passion" that drives us to achieve what we want to achieve is the element that creates miracles.
Looking back on the first anniversary of Iolite with this issue, we have achieved more than we have achieved. The positive impact that passion has on actions is evidence enough for me to look at Iolite's trajectory.
Find something you're passionate about and make your life more colorful...
Related articles
Sensibility: "The moment the lid came off" -- Editor's note, Iolite vol.5
Determination: "The strength of mind to believe and bet" -- Editor's note, Iolite vol.4
