One value
I became a proactive truant and got depressed in my first year of high school because of the intimidating and closed environment. While at home, I was thinking about my own purpose of everything all the time: attending school, studying, and living. Eventually, I got a straightforward and obvious, but one purpose for life.
I live to feel hapiness. If something bothers me, I can, and should run away from it for the life satisfaction.
After I got this value, my depression almost recovered, and I felt free. I transferred to a famous online high school in Japan in my second year. It was a great decision. I could make great friends and meet great teachers. More than anything else, because I had more free time, I was inspired by a classmate to participate in extracurricular activities such as organizing events and joining presentation competitions, which allowed me to learn about a new world that I had never known before. Also, it is a high school known as an advanced education system; there was an academic path support division of universities overseas, which kind of opportunity is rare in Japan. Since there was such support, I could join the online Oxford summer program and learn about the system of foreign universities to grasp and think about them deeply. As a result, I am now in a U.S. community college and aiming to transfer to a four-year university. I wish I had sooner recognized myself and escaped. The world is broad.
Takeaways
It was my one life chapter, but what did I learn from that? I think it’s quite simple. We have to endure sometimes, but we also have to escape. Without context and background, we can’t decide which option to take. We need to consider if there is an enthusiastic dream beyond the pain. We need to think critically and ask ourselves if we feel so. Unsurprisingly, our lifetime is finite. So, when we really think about how to make the most out of our lives, it is highly contradictory and self-destructive to put up with painful situations that do not align with our dreams or goals. If your life is hectic, take an advantage of holidays or weekends. Rest your mind, stay away from it, and ask yourself if you feel like you wanna get back. Running away from the pain is the opposite of running away from life. It can lead you to the actural life you want. The mindset we should have is not a binary of whether to run away; it’s moving forward toward our objects to make ourselves happy. Regardless of what others say, your life is yours, and my life is mine.