A person jumping for joy.

As I was walking home after finishing work, I saw a colorful little girl jumping up and down. A girl who didn't look like she was in elementary school yet. Wearing pink clothes. Boing, boing.

Beside her was a woman who looked like her mother, smiling and talking to the girl about something.

I wondered what kind of scene this was, and when I looked, I saw a baby being held in a carrier on the woman's chest.

The colorful girl was still jumping, and it seemed she was jumping out of pure joy. I wondered why she was so happy, so I looked in the direction of her gaze, and what I saw was a fire station.

The sun had completely set and it was getting dark, but it seemed the girl was delighted by the fire trucks and ambulances lined up at the fire station.

The woman who looked like her mother was also smiling and pointing at the vehicles lined up at the station. The girl stretched her arms out as far as she could and jumped right there on the spot.

Jump, jump.
Yay, yay.

She was as adorable as a
puppy going for a walk for the first time in a while.

What I thought then was, come to think of it, even if something good has happened to me in the last few years, I haven't reached out my hands and jumped for joy on the spot.

Jumping for joy is something that
doesn't really happen much after you become an adult.

Even if it did happen, I might not be understood, with people asking, 'You're jumping for joy over something like that?' just like the little girl.

I wonder, when was the last time I jumped for joy?

I thought about this and tried to trace back my past memories, but I couldn't find any experience where I jumped repeatedly on the spot to express my joy.

I feel like I might have done it when I was a child, but I wonder. For example, what was it like when I saw the two characters for 'passed' on my high school entrance exam?

I probably didn't jump.

I probably just clenched my fist and said, 'Yes!'

For example, university entrance exams, getting a job, finding a place to live, getting a partner, getting married, having a child... no matter which life event in this society I think of, I have no memory of jumping for joy on the spot for any of them.

It was just like clenching my fist and saying, "Yes!"

……Wait, hold on a second.

Come to think of it, the WBC semifinal held a while back. When Murakami hit the walk-off in the Japan vs. Mexico game……

Back then, I held hands with my wife and jumped for joy right there on the spot. We jumped up and down in the house over and over again.

Jump, jump, hooray, hooray, we did it, we did it! See, I told you! Murakami hooray! I was the only one who believed! Banzai, banzai!

I had forgotten about that.

For those who aren't that passionate about baseball or sports, you might think, "Huh? Over something like that?" but just like a little girl getting excited over a fire truck, what makes a person jump for joy is different for everyone.

If there is someone jumping for joy, if possible, I would like to join in and be happy with them.

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