What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

“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.”

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. I’ll prepare myself, like Guri and Gura gathering chestnuts in the forest. Because I never know when I might find my own giant egg.

“Is that what you think? That it will only ever be a dream? As long as you continue to say the words ‘one day,’ the dream is not over. Maybe it will simply remain a beautiful dream. It may never come true. But that is one way to live, in my opinion. The 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.’”

Choosing to do something because it excites you is the best reason of all. I just know it.”

“Well, raising a child is one new experience after another, isn’t it. You can never really know what it’s like until you’ve been through it. So much turns out to be different than how you imagined.”

Why is the parent who gives birth always expected to make the biggest career sacrifice?

“Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round. But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”

“Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.”

Things change. I change, other people change. That’s a good thing.

“This didn’t just come to you. It happened because you did something for yourself. You took action and that caused things to change around you.”

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