As an almost college gradute, it would be expected that I know my passion(s) pretty well. After all, I’m about to go into the real world; I should at least have a direction to go! But, I still find myself lost concerning what I “enjoy” doing. I’m often too serious about the activities I pursue in my life, so much so that it can paralyze me at times.
Yuki seems to identify with this in the newly airing series, Tsuritama. Throughout all his school transfers, he hasn’t found a passion, something enjoyable to pursue in his life. No clubs, no friends, just endless boredom.
Not only that, but like me, he doesn’t like to talk a lot to people he doesn’t know very well (the drowning feeling is quite accurate), which is definitely a huge handicap that’s hard to overcome.
Episode 5 of Tsuritama is the beginning of summer break and gives the opportunity to take fishing to the next level for Yuki. Now that he’s learned to tie the uni knot and how to cast the “eno shima don!”, he has all the basics to become better at this new skill.
But when does a simple activity become a passion? Yuki first makes it a goal to buy his own fishing gear. Though, it turns out he’s picked a rather expensive hobby.
But luckily, he finds a job with his newly found friends, Haru and Natsuki, on a fishing boat.
Natsuki, as the “fishing prince,” is a natural at sea, of course. Haru, being an alien who happens to like/survive off of water, has no trouble either. But Yuki takes a while to find his sea legs and actually spends a majority time on the boat crawling around. For those of you who have been in a smaller boat out at sea, it does take a while to get your balance and get adjusted to the waves. Thus, Yuki, who hasn’t really lived by the sea that much, finds the experience next to impossible to accomplish. How can he fish if he can’t even stand? It seems that his budding passion may be stomped out before it even had time to grow.
I found myself really relating to this episode. In a search to discover what I’m passionate about, I’ve run upon a lot of speed bumps, or rather, experiences about as hard as trying to stand up in a rocking boat for the first time. When all those around you seem so confident, but your legs are still shaking, it can be very discouraging.
Luckily for Yuki, his friends believe in him and don’t give up so easily. As they all continue to learn more about each other, each supports the other to do his best. Though, sometimes this support can seem very hard and seemingly unfeeling at first, like when Natsuki has Yuki cast his line to catch the first fish to attract the other fish (so the others on the boat can catch fish after that).
It took some convincing, but finally Yuki caught a fish and was able to slowly change from his shy self into someone who can just have fun and not worry about how he looked to others.
You know you’ve found your passion when you can just enjoy it and laugh. Don’t be too serious about it or you and others around your won’t have as much fun.
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Nice post. Actually had post planned myself for this, since I also seen much of Yuki in myself this episode. I picked up fishing as a hobby a year ago (thanks to my older brother) and it is quite thrilling once you actually hook a fish more than it is waiting. Although, many hobbies like that; few turn out to be true passions; but over the course of my life I have fond a few things that I am very passionate about. Fishing would be one as well as cooking, golf, pc repair, and even writing. Coming close to the end of my undergrad college years as well, I am having slight problems with finding time for my passions, yet when I have the chance I take part in them.
Again, excellent post.
Sometimes you need to have a hardass around to help you reach your goals. The path of least resistance is to simply give up and move on with your life. Anything else requires not just effort, but also the motivation to expend the effort. That’s why people always recommend you diet and/or exercise alongside someone else. We almost require encouragement to stick with it. Nice post. 🙂