The reason my mother was reading a book about 'what parenting is'🤣
Thinking back on it now.
I think my mother must have worried about raising me many times.
Because she was often reading books like 'What parenting is...'🤣
Back then, I was oblivious to my mother's feelings,
and was busy being absorbed in something energetically every day.
I never knew the meaning of the word 'moderation' from a young age.
If I thought something was fun, I went all the way.
If I was curious about something, I saw it through to the end.
But it wasn't that I wanted someone to watch me.
It wasn't that I wanted to be praised, either.
I just...
'How far can I go?'
That was all I wanted to know.
⸻
At one point, I got hooked on ball balancing.
I don't remember the reason🤣
I just,
'I want to be able to ride it'
is what I thought.
From then on, I practiced in the garden every day.
Get on.
Fall down.
Get on again.
Fall down.
Naturally, I failed many times.
The result...
My knees were covered in bruises 🤣
But,
"It hurts, so I'll quit"
was never an option.
"What should I do to be able to ride next time?"
That was all I thought about.
⸻
It was the same with roller skates.
I wasn't able to skate from the start.
I fell many times.
I hit my knees, too.
But, rather than fear,
"I want to be able to skate!"
was winning.
For every fall, the things I could do increased little by little.
That was fun.
⸻
And it was the same at school.
The vaulting box during gym class.
For most people, it might get scarier as it gets stacked higher.
But for me, it was the opposite 🤣
As the number of tiers increased,
"I'm going to jump over it!"
That's how I felt.
I take a running start.
I step on the springboard.
Bang!
I jump.
Before I knew it, I could jump over 8 tiers.
I was challenging myself alongside the boys.
But it wasn't that I wanted to beat anyone.
It was just,
"How far can I go?"
I just wanted to know that.
Looking back now, I think my mother was quite worried.
My knees were always bruised.
A daughter who would try something and then fall.
I'm sure,
'I wonder what people around us think'
is what she must have been thinking 🤣
Perhaps,
'What if people think I'm not watching her properly?'
she might have been thinking that.
But my mother never stopped me from doing everything I 'wanted to do'.
She just...
'Shizuku-san...'
she would sigh 🤣
⸻
I also became obsessed with jump rope.
Double unders.
How many times could I keep it going?
That was what I wanted to know.
I practiced, and practiced...
I was able to jump 50 times.
I was surprised myself.
But then I thought.
“Well then... what about a triple jump?”
I tried it.
The result.
It was impossible🤣
But rather than feeling frustrated,
“So this is my current limit”
I found it interesting to know that.
⸻
And then, soap bubbles🫧
At first, it was the small soap bubbles sold at the store.
But I soon became unsatisfied with them.
I wonder if I can make them bigger.
I wonder if I can make them harder to pop.
I read books and researched it.
And then, I made my own soap bubble solution.
......I made too much🤣
I spilled it grandly inside the house.
Normally,
'Oh no!'
is where it would end.
But I thought,
'It's still usable,'
lol
The liquid spread across the floor.
I tried sticking a straw into it a little.
Then my mother said,
'Shizuku...'
'Wiping it up comes first...'
She was absolutely right 🤣
But to me, it didn't look like 'spilled liquid',
it looked like 'liquid I can still make bubbles with'.
—
And then, a new question popped into my head.
'What if...'
'Instead of blowing, what if I sucked it in once and then blew out...'
'Wouldn't bubbles come out of my mouth?'
I tried it.
The result.
No soap bubbles came out of my mouth 🤣
Instead, I choked spectacularly.
The path of science wasn't that easy 🤣
⸻
But the research continued.
Make a big soap bubble.
Make another soap bubble and put it inside.
Put an even smaller soap bubble inside that.
Before I knew it, the garden was covered in bubbles 🫧
⸻
Looking back now, I haven't changed since I was little.
I want to try it.
I want to know.
I want to be able to do it.
I was driven solely by those feelings.
But my family was always by my side.
My father,
'That's dangerous, stop it'
instead of saying that,
She thought about how I could do it safely.
My mother,
brought me back to reality when I was running wild 🤣
And I think she was probably the one who was most worried.
Looking at my knees covered in bruises,
'I wonder if this child is okay'
she must have thought.
Even so, she didn't just stop me,
she watched over me.
Thinking about it now.
My 'I want to try' moments,
might have been things that grew because my family accepted them.
I never knew how to do things in moderation, even back then.
But.
Having something you can be passionate about,
I think that was a happy thing.