“If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.”
― Marie Lu, Legend
One night, my colleague asked me to go for a drink. At a bar, he kept telling me how awesome it is to interact with new people. And I agreed with that. One thing, however, divided us was that those whom we interact with are fundamentally different.
He was only able to speak his native language, namely Japanese. So, those whom he interacted with were solely limited to the Japanese. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The problem, though, was that he tried to persuade me to join his nightlife, drinking with other Japanese guys and girls. He told me maybe I should experience the real nightlife.
Excuse me? That was what I thought. What the hell did he mean by real nightlife? And what’s the definition of real anyway? I didn’t get it and still don’t. As long as he enjoys what he does by himself is fine, but he can’t force his value on me. We have fundamentally different values.
To be fair, I’ve already done tons of interactions with a huge number of people, and some of them ended up being my permanent friends. And they are not solely Japanese. They are Indonesian, American, German, Swiss, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Brazilian, Singaporean and the list goes on and on.
“You’re Japanese. Why don’t you try hanging out with the Japanese?” he asked.
Well, that’s pretty much what everyone else does. Not only the Japanese but also people in other countries do the same. They tend to hang out only with those who have similar backgrounds. This is just my view, but don’t they have a little commitment to embrace diversity?
He was born and grew up in Japan, and never knew there has always been a room for personal growth once he could open up the door to the world outside of his comfort zone. But I didn’t mean to force my value on him and never will.
From his perspective, maybe I’m a little weird. Yep, I’m aware of it, but that’s pretty much who I am. I think I have more foreign friends than Japanese, and I believe there is nothing wrong with that too. Can you see how much you can grow through interactions with those who have different backgrounds? Without my international friends, I wouldn’t achieve the success I’ve ever had.
Even though I’ve spent the most of my life in a country where everyone follows the crowd, I’ve tried to deviate myself from them by putting some effort to reach out those who have different backgrounds.
And here is my point. Whatever others tell you, be your remarkable self. My colleague was a nice guy, but he was pretty much like everyone else.
Universally, people try so hard to be normal because this crazy world makes us do so. And that’s what we call “peer pressure”. Don’t succumb to it. There is nothing wrong with being a little weird because everyone is weird in some way. Be proud of your individuality and never be ashamed of it. Embrace your originality for God’s sake!!
And if anyone doesn’t want to be different, maybe it starts from you. Being weird is way better than ordinary. Your originality will eventually make you shine in the crowd.
Be original. Be nice. Be kind.
We only live once. So, let us begin…
Here are snapshots I photographed at Marine and Walk in Yokohama on August 17th.






















