What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

I couldn’t stand putting up with the inconvenience of country life again.

This thought has been on my mind a lot recently. But it feels such a huge effort to do anything about it. Basically I’m not very driven. Even writing a CV is a big hassle for me.

“You managed to find employment, you go to work every day and you can feed yourself. That’s a fine achievement.”

“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.”

But keep at it and you’ll learn along the way.

I still don’t know what I want to do, or what I can do. What I do know is that there’s no need to panic, or do more than I can cope with right now. For the time being, I plan to simply get my life in order and learn some new skills, choosing from what’s available.

days go by more happily when you have something to dream about. It’s not always a bad thing to have a dream, with no plan for ever carrying it out.”

“Everybody is connected. And any one of their connections could be the start of a network that branches in many directions. If you wait for the right time to make connections, it might never happen, but if you show your face around, talk to people and see enough to give you the confidence that things could work out, then ‘one day’ might turn into ‘tomorrow.’”

Trust makes the world go round.

From big things to little, there are some things we simply cannot force to go to plan, no matter how hard we try.

There was value in all my experience.

Having somebody who believed in me was the best lucky charm ever.”

How much had my own thinking limited my opportunities?

I’m not useless. Perhaps my problem all along was not being in the right environment.

“With poetry you don’t have to worry too much about the finer nuances of meaning. Just enjoy the feel or sound of a poem as you read it. Imagine it however you like.”