Ryukyufrogsに興味を持ったのは、キャリア演習の中で聞いたのがきっかけです。友人がfrogsに行くから自分も行ってみよう、という感じ。説明会で初めて知ったぐらいの程度で、ITや機械系も苦手な部類だったので、frogsに近寄るとは思ってもいませんでした(笑)。Ryukyufrogsに入る前は、外では快活に意見を言うタイプを演じていたけど、実は弱くて、周囲に流されていました。そういう自分に気がついたのも後からなのですが。
主体的にいたいと思いながらも、進路やキャリアなど決める肝心な部分は周囲の流れを意識していました。だけど、今でもその名残があってまだ悩んでいます。RyukyufrogsのOBOGや活動で関わる大人の多くの方々は、周りに流されずに自分の選択肢を選んで生きている人が多くて、当時の私は、自分とは真逆の生き方をしている人がこんなにもたくさんいるのだということを知りました。そして、弱かった自分、誰かを見て生きている自分を変えるきっかけをもらいました。
大学卒業後の進路を決めるとき、与えられた様々な人生の選択肢の岐路に立ち、右往左往していました。そんな時に友人から一言。「明日死んでもいい生き方してる?」すごい人たちがそういう生き方をしてきたというのは聞いたことはあったけど、どこか他人事に感じていたんです。でも、彼は私にとって身近な存在でありながら、「明日死んでもいい生き方」を選択していたんです。弱い自分なりに、その瞬間を決断する指針ができました。
The first time that Ryukyufrogs caught my interest was when it was mentioned during a career seminar. I had some friends that were going to do it, so I decided I would try it too. Having only heard of it through a seminar, and lacking IT and electronics skills, I assumed I would never have anything to do with frogs. (haha) Prior to joining frogs, I was already the type to freely state my opinion, but in reality, my opinions were fairly weak, and as a result I was often swayed by the opinions of others around me.
Even though I knew I wanted to be independent, when making decisions about my career, I was overly aware of the thoughts and opinions of others. However, even now traces of that remain, and I still tend to fret about things. After meeting with graduates of Ryukyufrogs and the adults that help with the activities, I realized that there are a lot of people around me who aren’t swayed by the people around them, and all of these people were living their lives in the complete opposite way that I had been living mine at that time.Then, I received an opportunity to change myself and to stop being that weak person that only ever made decisions after watching others.
When it came time to decide my career path after graduating, I stood at the crossroads of the various lives I could lead, and I contemplated which direction I should go. At that moment, one of my friends asked me this: “If you died tomorrow, would you be proud of how you lived?”. I had heard that truly amazing people thought about things like that when deciding how they should live their lives, but it always felt like a foreign concept to me. However, someone with such a close connection to me was “living a life he could be proud of”. At that time, despite my weak mindset, I decided that would be my guide in life.