If someone had asked me 30 years ago how I would imagine the future, my answer would probably not have had much to do with the reality of today. All of a sudden, the future has become the present and is now happening much faster than I would like. But on the other hand, many things have not moved at all for a long time and seem to want to stay in the past forever. The future is a double-edged sword, which also seems to be quite heavy and which does not want to be picked up and handled by everyone.
Nevertheless, we cannot hide from the future, even if we often would rather take a trip into the past. Wasn't it so comfortably warm and cozy there? Or do we just have that illusion? From time to time, it is probably quite useful to take a look back and take off our rose-colored glasses.
The best place to start is here and now. First of all, take a good look around at exactly where you are at the moment. And when I do that, I always find that I have ventured quite far out and away from the place from which I started a long time ago. Now I'm sitting here on a distant island on the other side of the world in a place I never imagined I'd end up one day. Japan was not at all on my agenda before, somehow it had turned out that way in the course of my life.
Actually, I had a whole other direction in mind, which was to take me across the big water to a distant continent. Culturally and mentally I was more connected to North America than to East Asia, and that's where my heart was heading. But eventually I was too deeply rooted in my homeland that I would have dared to make this big step. Although my heart never stopped reminding me of my growing wanderlust.
Before it was too late, I finally dared to embark on a great adventure. It didn't turn out to be North America, but with Down Under I stayed in a halfway familiar cultural area. The time down there really opened my eyes and showed me what I really didn't want. And that it was not too late to satisfy my longing and desire.
In any case, my longing has not let me off the hook and has been my constant companion ever since. And it has ensured that I have continued to drift around in the world, like a loose leaf in the wind. And after a first appearance in the land of the rising sun, I suddenly found myself with a real goal in my life, one that I was passionately heading for. But before that happened, I finally spent some time in the north of America, which confirmed some things, and set some other things straight.
But at that time my compass had already been recalibrated and adjusted, so I ended up far in the East again. In a place where I really wanted to go at that time, even though until that moment I didn't really have a strong connection to this country. The attraction of adventure and exoticism had clearly won and determined the further route. For that I had given up and let go of quite a few things. But I also learned and gained so much. In the end, it's probably a clear points win, because I've been attached to this country for several years now.
My very first trip to Japan was quite a while ago now and all that already feels like it was in another lifetime. So much has happened since then and I have experienced so much, but the impressions from that first visit seem to have been very intense and it is definitely lasting.
At that time, I could never have imagined that one day I would live here and also consider this country my home. And since my stay here in the Far East will probably not be forever, I have no choice but to take on every day and every opportunity that comes my way and live it to the fullest. I'm still somewhat chasing my dreams, but they always seem to be a few steps ahead of me. But it's probably better that way, because at least I keep moving.
