As my 20s’ come to a close, I find myself still not being able to enjoy my life “normally”. Although it is true that since I am pushing too many agendas simultaneously, there isn’t too much time left for leisure anyway, I don’t think things would change even if I had the time.
Apart from creating and making something great, life seems so boring and meaningless. Don’t get me wrong, I respect and understand people who work to live. However, things like taking trips, eating delicious meals, or buying new gadgets are simply not attractive enough for me to live for.
Before further discussion, I want to share some stories. There are two people around me who are at different ends of the spectrum toward working.
Altruism, Commitment and Sacrifice for Nothing
My mother is a member of the local Congress. She works in the neighborhood committee and her duties cover a wide range of basic administrative operations including conducting various censuses, monitoring the foreign population, and the latest one, organizing people to get vaccinated. She’s a live-to-work type of person, working 6 days a week and giving her duties first priority. I never saw her being interested in anything else. She couldn’t even concentrate on her only hobby, watching Korean shows. When I was with her, I noticed that she usually fell asleep within 10 minutes after a show began.
I still can’t understand why she’s so motivated and altruistic. Her wages aren’t high and she literally doesn’t know how to spend her money because she didn’t develop any decent hobbies. I have problems with her because she has refused to attend every single life event of mine with the excuse of having to work. People don’t like her because she represents authority even though she’s the lowest figure of the system. The most ironic part is that it seems that the party doesn’t like her either. They tried to transfer her to a more chaotic neighborhood and threatened to fire her if she didn’t accept. It was the only time she became emotional and showed anger to her supervisor.
A More Popular Alternative:
Have Fun and Forget about Everything Else
Karashi is a friend of my best friend. He is a former JSDF aircraft technician and one of the most un-Japanese people I have ever met, even among those from Osaka. He resigned from his job right after the pandemic. I mean he wasn’t fired or laid off because the pandemic hit his company hard, but on the contrary he resigned on his own because his job was too busy for him to enjoy his life. When everyone was restrained to their home, Karashi’s party departed. Instead of finding another job, he started to enjoy his vacation on unemployment benefits. He as traveling around various places across the whole country at a ridiculously high frequency. Having drinks with friends of his who I don’t know on a daily basis. Although Karashi eventually crashed his bike and suffered a serious injury during his trip in Kyushu, he successfully avoided COVID-19 and got an offer right before his last trip.
I still can’t understand why Karashi was able to manage a pleasure-oriented lifestyle with so little effort. I like hanging out with him, though . He is a funny guy and you will find it’s hard to really hate hime even if he is a little selfish sometimes. Although Karashi is not willing to talk about his other communities, he seems to be widely welcomed among them. What’s more, despite that Karashi never went to a college, he was able to find another decent offer in an extremely short time in about 2 weeks or so. I have read a part of his resume, which was sophisticatedly written.
Sure, there must be something hard in his life, but Karashi apparently enjoys a life with significantly higher quality than my mother (and myself). To be honest, if I had a chance, I want to be more like Karashi than my mother. After leaving home and moving to another country, I gradually realized working hard won’t let someone be welcomed. How can one bring fun and happiness to others if he or she can’t even enjoy themselves?