Days moving towards the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge 2023, a first for a Japanese person. Every day I am simply driving straight towards that single point of light at the end of the tunnel.
Nothing about it is easy — everything is new, walls keep appearing, and there are moments I feel close to breaking or losing. With barely time to sleep, I pour everything I have into each day, running myself into the ground.
But that is not down to my own strength alone. I am here today because of the warm support and encouragement of a great many people.
Takuro Yoshida’s “Fight” (originally by Miyuki Nakajima)
— the power of music —
A message arrived from someone.
“Every line of the lyrics overlaps with how you’re living right now, Komochan … I can’t listen to it without crying. Give it a listen.”
Not every day is enjoyable, not everything goes well — falling and getting up, failing and standing still for a while. I was feeling a little worn down in my heart when that message arrived.
Listening to that song, it sounded like nothing but a cheer for who I am right now.
I looked up the lyrics online and played it again and again. The tears came, wherever I happened to be.
—————-
ファイト！
闘う君の唄を
闘わない奴等が笑うだろう
≪ファイト！ 歌詞より抜粋≫
—————-
Rather than fighting and regretting it later …
There is also the choice, in a life, not to fight. Perhaps it is the surest way to keep in step with the people around you.
I too have lived through that conflict, again and again.
Not going along with everyone, not doing what everyone else does, has meant not being understood, being talked about behind my back, being told hard things.
But does a fight that is mine alone really need everyone else’s opinion?
Rather than regretting never having fought at all, it is far better to tell yourself “fight!” and move forward.Once your mind is made up, once you are resolved, there is nothing left but to go forward.
This song reminded me of exactly that.
To anyone chasing a dream
I am sure that anyone chasing their own dream, the same as me, carries plenty of hope, and anxiety, and friction with the people around them.
ファイト！
闘う君の唄を
闘わない奴等が笑うだろう
≪ファイト！ 歌詞より抜粋≫
—————-
But let’s go forward anyway. To everyone chasing a dream and fighting alongside me, I send this cheer too.
Believing that a bright light is certain to break through, one day.
Music, words — neither of them is something you can see, so why do they strike the heart this hard?
—————-
ファイト！
闘う君の唄を
闘わない奴等が笑うだろう
≪ファイト！ 歌詞より抜粋≫
—————-