While listening to 13-sai no Hello Work (Hello Work for 13-Year-Olds),
a thought suddenly came to me.
“What is it that I truly want?”
And the first thing that appeared in my mind
wasn’t money.
It was freedom.
But then I began to wonder:
What does freedom actually mean to me?
As I sat with that question,
one phrase deeply resonated with me.
The freedom to choose.
I have to leave the house at this time.
I have to get on this train.
I have to get off at this station.
Maybe those are ordinary things in everyday life.
But for me,
they often felt restrictive and exhausting.
On days when I don’t go to work,
I feel an incredible sense of freedom.
Right now,
it still isn’t enough to fully support my life financially.
But while thinking,
“I hope this will someday become a real source of income,”
I spend my time editing videos,
filming,
sitting in front of my computer wondering,
“Maybe I should do it this way…
Or maybe that way…”
I organize my thoughts,
reflect,
and before I know it,
I’ve been sitting there for three hours.
And strangely,
it doesn’t feel painful at all.
It feels natural.
Meanwhile today,
I spent only a short amount of time at work,
and yet I felt deeply uncomfortable.
For some reason,
everything I did felt like it might later become a problem.
Maybe someone would criticize me.
Maybe I was doing something wrong.
I could feel myself shrinking inward.
And I was surprised
that the exact same “time”
could feel so completely different.
When I first read 13-sai no Hello Work years ago,
to be honest,
it didn’t really resonate with me.
It was a popular book,
but I couldn’t understand what I was supposed to gain from it.
But now, at 32 years old,
I find myself listening to it with complete attention.
It feels like an entirely different book.
I think it’s because
the questions inside me have changed.
I’m no longer asking,
“What job should I do?”
I’m asking,
“How do I want to live?”
To me,
“realigning myself” does not mean becoming perfect.
It means noticing
what feels right for me
and what does not.
And then,
trusting that feeling enough
to slowly choose again and again.
I realized that this process itself
is what “realigning” truly means.
For me, freedom means
being able to choose.
Where I go.
What I do.
Who I spend time with.
What I think about.
To be able to choose those things for myself.
Today,
I finally realized that.
And honestly,
I don’t think I can go back to the way I was before.
But I think that’s okay.
Because for the first time,
it feels like I’ve started living honestly
according to my own inner sense.
March 2026