What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

It’s amazing the power stories can have.

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.

Imagine what an awful shock it must have been to come in contact with air for the first time, not knowing where I was.

Another thing I never knew about children until I had one myself is that it is simply impossible to read your own book with a small child in the vicinity.

“And even when I do get home early, there’s nobody there. It’s lonely,” she continued.

“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.

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

How uncanny the way what one reads can sometimes synchronize with reality.

The Earth moves. Morning and night don’t stay—they go.

isn’t it better sometimes to be honest about what you really want?

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable,

“There is no ‘why.’ It’s just the way things turned out. Isn’t it a good thing to want more great books in the world? I want to read them too.”

“You are already living,”

Omaewa mou ikiteru

but I like it. I really like it. These images from real life could be straight out of a fantasy world.

Relief, happiness, emotions I have no label for, overwhelm me.

Nobody here today is a student anymore. This is a bunch of adults who’ve shed their school uniforms and evolved into something else.

Just get on with the task in front of you and people will see what you can do.

Day off. That reminds me of one more thing I learned since retiring: if you don’t work, there are no days off. Never again will I enjoy the anticipation of freedom and feeling of release at the thought of taking time off work.