First Encounters and Partings are a Fine Line - At the end of every encounter on the journey of life, everyone must part ways!

At the age of 14, I left home and traveled to an unfamiliar country, the United States, and since then I always had to do everything myself. As a result, I seemed to have developed a mental toughness in my heart. I wonder if I became accustomed to being alone in a new place because it was so common for me to be alone there. I don't think I ever felt lonely even when I was alone. It also helped that my family environment was already dissolved, and I had no family home to go back to that would make me homesick. I spent my teenage years without loneliness.

One day, many years later, I found myself feeling unusually lonely. I thought to myself, "Oh, so this is what it means to be lonely..." I looked back on the first time I realized that I was lonely. It must have been 14-15 years ago. After various family problems piled up, I divorced and became the legal guardian of our four children, and was busy raising them every day while performing the hard work of being the president of a company. I don't mean to speak ill of my children, but I still remember the various problems that arose with my three older children, and how I was always desperately trying to clean up after them.

My role as a father was to take good care of my children until they reached the age of 20, otherwise legal adult age. I had to provide them with educational opportunities so that they would be able to stand on their own feet by the time they grew up. I was so busy with cram school and lessons, and my kids were constantly on the go. However, all these efforts were in vain. When my three older children were all in their teens, a number of problems began to pop out simultaneously, probably due to the stress from the junior high school entrance exams and problems in the family environment. One of them went out with his friends quietly at night on weekends and did not come home until after midnight. Another failed all five of his junior high school entrance exams. The last one became overconfident, stopped studying, and began to wander around aimlessly. I felt I had reached my limit.

As a result, I came to the conclusion that I would send all three of them to a boarding school in the United States. The hard work that went into reaching this conclusion was so difficult that words cannot even begin to describe it. Over the next year, I took the children to the U.S. schools for interviews on numerous occasions. In other words, interviews that would determine their acceptance into these schools. As a result, all three children passed with flying colors, two of them at the same school and the other one at a different school. So, all three children will be studying in the U.S. for an extended period of time.

Finally, the time had come for the three of us to leave for the United States together. Of course, I accompanied them to the United States. I rented a car at the airport and spent hours traveling back and forth between the two schools on the East Coast of the United States, accompanying the children until they moved into their on-campus dormitories and settled in. This involves an enormous amount of hard work. Not only was I tired from the work, but the time difference and the long hours of driving were pushing my body to my exhaustion limits. Still, I did what needed to be done, and I did my best to get the children to their respective schools. Finally, the project was complete, and I said goodbye to the three children and boarded a plane to return home from the U.S. I found myself on the plane, exhausted and battered both in body and mind from the extreme schedule I had been on up to that point.

When I returned to Tokyo, the moment I opened the front door and turned on the light, I was suddenly struck by this feeling so much that it shocked me since I had never felt this before. The light at the front door flicked on, but of course the house was quiet. There was no one in the house but me. I wondered if I had been absorbed by the momentary silence. Words cannot explain it well, but I suddenly felt an indescribable sense of emptiness and loneliness, and I did not know what to do. What was this feeling of "Loneliness! What was this feeling of "I'm lonely! I felt an unexpected and acute sense of emptiness in my heart, because I was really alone. Suddenly, I felt as if I had found a new me. It was an event that made me think about how lonely it is to suddenly lose someone who is always by your side. Fortunately, the loneliness did not last for half a day, and the next day I was back to my normal self.

If you first meet someone, the day they leave will inevitably come someday. If you do not want to experience such loneliness, you should live alone from the beginning. Don't meet anyone or get married. Of course, don’t even think about having children. If you don't socialize with anyone, there will be no friends to lose, no family, no children, and you will make things a lot easier for yourself, right? Many young people think that relationships are a hassle to begin with. The same goes for relationships between men and women. If you think that you are bound to break up with someone sooner or later, and if there is a possibility that it will be painful, perhaps you shouldn’t fall in love in the first place.

But I would like to say that it never is. Certainly with every meeting comes the risk of a breakup. The possibility of heartbreak arises. Still, there is no substitute for the many emotions that come from the first hello. Many heartwarming events also comfort and strengthen us at times, and there has to be many good memories that will remain in a corner of our hearts forever. Therefore, even if there is still a risk of suffering from heartbreak at times, the time spent together, the joys, and the emotions will remain etched in our hearts forever, so we should embrace meeting others positively.

In today's complex society, humans are not meant to live alone. We eventually meet someone, come into contact with them, and relationships will be born. Where there are first meetings, there are also eventually partings. There are many reasons for partings. Sometimes it is a blessed goodbye at an important milestone in one's life, but other times it is a breakup of a relationship, a quarrel, a divorce, severe bodily harm caused by a quarrel, the disappearance of a loved one, or even death.

Nevertheless, as long as we live, we will meet people, and we should cherish these encounters, even if they sometimes turn out to be bitter and painful goodbyes. Because as long as there are moments of friendship, love, joy, and inspiration that come from these first meetings, everyone will have warm feelings in their hearts and realize how wonderful it is to be alive. In this way, friends are made, families are formed, and children are born.

If you want to enjoy life to the fullest, go meet more people. It will change your view of the world. You will learn how to get along with others. And above all, you will have the chance to have experiences that will fill your heart with contentment. This is why I decided to put up with the risk of a breakup. No matter how painful the ordeal might be. This article is dedicated to my friend Noah, a friend I loved dearly but I will no longer see. I miss him so much because he is suddenly gone and I will never see him again. However, I will get over this feeling and I will continue to live my life!