Every Day Is a New Journey

Every Day Is a New Journey

If life were like an American TV series, then in the days before yesterday, you could see the ending of the previous season everywhere: some endings joyful and complete, some full of regret, some brimming with hope, and some simply ordinary. And for most people, in just a few more hours, a new season will begin. Unlike a TV series, though, the drama of life has no script, no trailer, no rehearsal, not even a long winter break. Everything seems to come too fast. Fortunately, that does nothing to diminish its brilliance. Even when the last season has only just ended, we still look toward the coming one with eager anticipation, as if everything is about to be different.

Sadly, in most cases, that is not what happens. Over these few days and nights, aside from the unsurprising fact that the rings of our age have increased by one more circle, we do not undergo any earthshaking transformation simply because the calendar has turned from 2016 to 2017. Tomorrow, you still will not become the ideal version of yourself overnight. No new character will suddenly appear out of nowhere to enter the stage. The family, friends, companions, and rivals who share the scene with you are still the same familiar cast from the previous season. The hopes and longings you held so dearly in the days before yesterday seem to vanish all at once, and it feels as though you have fallen back into the same old, predictable plotline of the last season.

But can you go back? No one can. No one can ever go back. Life is not a story. There is no magic to bring the dead back to life, no miracle to mend a broken heart. Sometimes life seems to move in circles, but no matter how similar the scenery may look, it cannot hide the fact that we are traveling on a one-way road. Trees may seem the same every day, yet only when leaves lie beneath our feet or fresh green buds fill the branches do we suddenly realize what has changed. All the accidents and turning points in life feel as though they arrive out of nowhere, but in truth they are the accumulation of everything we failed to notice during those long, dull, seemingly repetitive days.

Perhaps in the end you will become the person you hope to be; perhaps you will not. Life is full of countless surprises you could never imagine. Yet even the parts you seem most able to grasp often slip past you because of time. The fog of time blurs both what lies ahead and what lies behind. Without firm conviction, it is easy to lose ourselves in it. Then, in a haze, we suddenly realize that one season is nearing its end, while another is about to begin quietly. In that instant, it feels as though we have awakened from a magical paralysis—filled with hope, filled with anticipation, and full of confidence as we prepare to step into the next chapter of life.

And yet, when faced with a life that repeats itself again and again, as though each day you die and wake anew, can you still hold on to your original intention the way you did in the days before yesterday? I think that if, each time we wake, we can be like Dolores and remember our hope, then every day will become a new journey. And even if we must die a thousand times, ten thousand times, within the repetition of life, we will still eventually find the way out that belongs to us.