Hello everyone, this is Yoshino from iU Blog!
In this article, I’ll be writing about what I started doing during the Corona pandemic.
The reason I decided to write this article is because when I was a freshman, I had more free time with mostly remote classes, in both the first and second semesters. So, I thought about what I could do and what I should do with that free time. Therefore, I decided to try something new that I had never done before and write this article to introduce “new things”. There are three things I started doing. I’ll explain each of them.
So let’s get started!
It all started when I remembered about my father’s past
What did you do during the stand down period? Some of you may have found new hobbies, or may have done anything new. I did the latter first. During this emergency period, I did nothing but lay around at home. Those days went on for a long time, but one day I decided to start something new. The first thing I started to do was to play the guitar!
My story begins from a time, in my youth, when my father taught me how to play the guitar. Yet as I grew older, my father’s life became busier and busier, time with him gradually disappeared. However, during the pandemic as the months went by, he was able to spend more time at home and started playing the guitar again. Seeing him play his guitar, brought back memories and I was moved. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I also wanted to play the guitar. I told my father, “I want to play the guitar too!” and to my surprise, he handed me the guitar that he had been using all along. I started to practice a lot and now can play a few songs.
When I started playing the guitar, I felt the joy of my own growth and began to think, “I want to try to do more new things!”
The next thing I started was English
(I started to study it seriously)
The second thing I started to do, when I was playing guitar, was to more seriously learn English. I was looking for practice songs on YouTube and found “The Beatles – Let it be,” a song that my father used to play on the guitar!
When I was playing this song on my guitar, I thought to myself wondering “What are the meanings of these lyrics?” Then, when I read a Japanese translation, I was moved by the meaning of the lyrics. Since then, I started thinking that there must be more great Western
music out there and I want to understand the meaning of it without looking at a Japanese translation. So, I started to study English in earnest.
The last thing I started was YouTube
The third thing I started to do was to notice that I was using YouTube all the time; when I was practicing guitar or studying English, and again I thought to myself, “YouTube is awesome! Isn’t it great?” I can practice my guitar, learn English, and laugh at many funny videos on YouTube. I feel that I can do anything on YouTube. After that, I decided to make my own videos.
I want to make my own videos and keep them as memories, so I started my own YouTube channel. The planning, editing, and filming of videos are all new to me and had a lot of trouble in the beginning. However, the hardships outweigh the sense of accomplishment I feel, when a video I created turns into a work of art. After editing, the joy of having my work of art seen by others is the most important satisfaction of shooting a video that I enjoyed creating. I’m glad I started to use YouTube.
The last thing I want to say to you.
Well, these are the three things I started doing.
The message I want to convey in this article is that one’s life can be created from a single opportunity. If I hadn’t seen my father playing the guitar and taken the opportunity to play the guitar, then I wouldn’t have studied English seriously, and also not started my YouTube videos. When I started these three things, I realized how wonderful it was to start something new.
So maybe this blog article will help some people to perhaps join iU (LOL). But, seriously, I did decide to join iU because of one main reason. It is a long story, and perhaps I’ll write about it another time.
Let’s get back on track. If anyone is reading this article, who also feels or thinks, “I can’t find what I want to do” or “I don’t know what I want to do in the future.” Please take time to think about it. Then reflect on what you have done thus far. You may find that what you really want to do is hidden there, within you.
I sincerely hope that people reading this article will find what they “really want to do.
See you soon!