What I found when I gave up everything and moved to a new place.

If you want to make a big change in your life, you can make a big change in your life by changing the people, the place you live, or the job you have.

This is the story of how I let go of all of those things and took the first step to where I am today.

My backgroundI was born in Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, graduated from a normal high school, and moved to Kitakyushu City. 5 years in the construction industry (waterproofing), managing craftsmen and site management. 3 years in sales at a machinery trading company. 3 years in Kamakura, assistant to a venture company representative. 4 years now, freelance.

The Curse of Hometown

I had never left my hometown until I graduated from high school, so I could not imagine working outside of the prefecture, in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people.

Many of my friends around me got jobs in their hometowns, and those who went on to higher education moved to their own places.

The path to employment right after graduating from a regular high school is really narrow; you can't get a specialized job, and there are not many job offers coming to high schools from companies.

As the teacher said, "There really aren't many jobs this year..." The only jobs that do come in are for workers at local automobile factories.

The school's deviation score is not high, so in today's academic society, there is no way to even get a chance to sift through the job market.

As I did not want to work only at a factory, it was really a very narrow gate for me, or it was like I was in the dark.

However, being a relatively optimistic person, I thought, "I'll make it somehow," and tried my best to do "what I can do now.

As I was continuing to practice interviewing as something I could do now, I was approached by a graduate from 10 years ago about a job offer, and my teacher recommended me for the position.

My homeroom teacher drove over two hours to go to the interview with me, and looking back, I am very grateful.

I remember eating katsudon with him and saying, "I'm going to eat katsudon so I can get the interview!" I remember eating katsudon together.

The company that offered me the job was Kaya Kogyo, a construction waterproofing company in Kitakyushu City.

I was going to be away from my hometown, but there were no jobs available at the school that were ideal for me, and I was interested in this unfamiliar world, so I decided to go for an interview! I was interested in a strange world, so I decided to go for an interview!

The president of the company at the time was a kind and gentle man, and the conversation proceeded smoothly.

I let go of my thought, "If I'm going to find a job, it has to be in my hometown..." and left my hometown to find a job, which was the first change I felt.

For the next five years, I enjoyed, laughed, cried, sometimes suffered, and spent very fulfilling days.

It is because of those five years that I have become the person I am today.

I am very glad that I made the big choice to leave my hometown and my parents, and that I was able to experience living on my own in a sense.

I let go of 'hometown, parents, and commitment' and got 'first place, first people I meet, and focus on one thing.

A step toward growth."

It was probably three years after I started working at Kaya Kogyo that the president of the company was replaced by the president who had been with the company when I joined.

Since then, the company has changed for better or worse.

Now I think it is natural for things to change because the management has changed, but the changes were so drastic that I could not hide my surprise at the time.

The biggest change was that several of my subordinates, who were more than 10 years older than myself, joined the company.

I don't know if "doing a good job" is the right word, but I felt that they were working with the mentality that they just wanted to make things easy for themselves.

Our job is to "provide the best possible workmanship, smoothly, without inconvenience, and with a profit," and each of us has to go to the job site to see the progress, talk with the craftsmen and the prime contractor, consider the schedule and placement of craftsmen, and manage the arrangements and documents.

However, when these newcomers went to the job site, they would just take a quick peek, or pretend to go directly to the job site and spend some time in a parking lot somewhere and then go home.

I was close to the craftsmen, and I would get all that information.

Having worked hard at my job, I questioned why this was allowed, so I repeatedly consulted with my seniors for more than two years to change this system for the good of the company, but nothing changed.

It is something that will not change unless the president's policy changes.

If the president condones it, it can't be helped.

I would work with such bewildering feelings.

By the time I had been with the company for five years, I had become accustomed to the business and was enjoying my work as my skills had improved and my job had become easier.

Then it occurred to me that if I continued like this, I would become a person who "does his job well" without trying to change, and I would never grow any further...

With this thought in mind, I decided to give up my 5-year career in search of "change" and change jobs.

At that time, I was thinking more about how I could grow than about what would happen in the future.

My first job change was very difficult.

No one told me how to change jobs, and no one even told me how to look for jobs.

After much trial and error, I ended up changing jobs at the Kyushu sales office of Sankyo Shoji, a company that operates a machinery-related trading company.

He gave up his "job, people, and housing" to get "a new job, a new job, new people, and a new place.

' Seeking further change.

He gave up his five-year career at Kaya Kogyo and worked as a sales representative at Sankyo Shoji for about three years.

The construction industry and the wholesale industry have no connection or relationship at all, but for me, who chose to change jobs in order to gain new experiences to grow, the industry doesn't matter.

However, I chose a sales position because I like and was good at talking to people, and I wanted to gain experience using my communication skills.

Since joining the company, I had no problem making sales through trial and error to achieve my sales office and personal plans.

Among about 100 employees in all, I once received an award from the head office for the sales transition of the sales office.

If you look at the details, there were many things that happened, but in general, I continued to do my job well.

Around three years after joining Sankyo Shoji, "an event" occurred that would change my mind.

It was a shocking comment from my boss.

I won't go into details, but it was something along the lines of, "You probably won't make it at this company.

Hearing this comment, I could not keep my mouth shut. My own performance was good, and I had no idea what to expect.

I had been working with a strong desire to make the Kyushu Sales Office as good as the Kanto Sales Office, and this comment cut me off from the path I was on.

I decided to rethink the meaning of "work," how to live "my life," and what I should do to "grow.

I would work while feeling a bit bewildered.

At that time, I suddenly opened Twitter on my phone, which I had only downloaded but not used.

There were, of course, all kinds of people from all over the country on Twitter.

As I looked at the profiles and posts of various people, I began to think, "There are so many interesting people in the world that I don't know about," and "I want to know more about these people.

For me, Twitter was like a picture book I had read as a child, and it was exciting.

I could connect and communicate with people I didn't know.

I replied to various people's posts and sent DMs.

I didn't expect it at the time, but my encounter on Twitter would lead me to take the big step of leaving my hometown of Kyushu and coming to the Kanto region.

I gave up my "stable job, Kyushu, people, and housing" to obtain "an environment with change, one-on-one connections, new encounters, values not found in Kyushu, new land, etc."

A moment of opportunity."

There are so many different people on Twitter.

Among many such people, I happened to meet Mr. Naruse, the representative of Will Forward, Inc. who had started Twitter around the same time as I did.

Mr. Naruse was really knowledgeable, funny, and a completely different breed of person from the adults I had met in my life.

I started replying to his posts, and then I heard that he and his friends were going to hold an event in Tokyo.

Having never left my hometown of Kyushu on my own volition, I was a little worried, but I replied to the post.

I was a little worried, but I replied to him and he said, "Will you come and manage the event? I was honestly a little worried, but I was brave enough to take the plunge.

To be honest, I was a little worried, but I decided to go to Tokyo with courage.

This was the first time I met Mr. Naruse in person.

After that, I participated in several events held by Mr. Naruse and discussed my own work with him.

Then Mr. Naruse said to me, "It is good to look for a job in Kyushu, but there are many interesting people in Kamakura, and you can stay at the office, so why don't you come here to find out what you want to do? He told me.

I didn't know anyone in the area, I only knew one person, and I didn't have a job lined up.

I was a little anxious.

However, I decided to leave my hometown in Kyushu and go to Kamakura, even though I might never get this chance again and I would have to give up everything.

I spent four years in Kamakura searching for what was important to me and how I wanted to live my life, and through trial and error, I ended up becoming a freelancer.

I let go of the 'unchanging' and gained the 'variable.

Life is always changing.

I have been able to meet and build relationships with many people through Will Forward and Mr. Naruse, although many things have happened, such as the spread of Corona soon after arriving in Kamakura.

I had been living my life focusing on "work" in the moment, but I was freed from that and began to look at things with "myself" at the center.

To be honest, I felt very uncomfortable, and there were many times when I was troubled and bewildered.

There is no right answer to life and we cannot predict what will happen in the future, so it is really hard to think about what we can do with "what I want to do and be" at the center.

There is no manual, no reality, nothing, and you have to think very hard about something that may or may not exist.

So, I thought.

Life is always changing, and 'if you don't know if it exists or not, let's do it even if it doesn't.'

What I realized during these four years of serious thinking with myself at the center was incomparably greater than anything I had ever realized before.

For example

People are basically indifferent, encounters with people and work are luck, the probability of luck requires action, change comes when you act, change requires courage and determination, it is important to live appropriately, live freely so as not to damage the freedom of others, making others happy starts with you, entertaining others also starts with you, you It is important to live life in an appropriate manner.

Please note that these are my personal thoughts, and I am not sure if they are correct for other people.

I would be very happy to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Lastly.

What I found when I let go of everything and stepped out and emigrated was my life.

When we are alive, whether in our daily lives or at work, there are always choices in front of us, and we must make our own decisions and move forward.

Among those decisions, taking a step that may change your life (going to school, getting a job, changing jobs, transferring to another company, etc.) is exciting, but it can also make you anxious.

I believe that there is no good or bad in taking a step forward, and if you have made that choice on your own, there is no mistake in it.

By having the courage to take a step forward, you can see a completely different world from the one you have always seen with something else at the center.

I would like to change a lot and take a step forward in the future.

Thank you for reading this far.