The Summer I Ate McDonald's with Johnny. The Reality of the 'Selection' I Witnessed at a 200-Person Audition

Thank you for reading my previous article. Today, I will talk about an event from when I was 15 (in my third year of junior high school) that changed my life 180 degrees.
1. I, whose only merit in the table tennis club was 'side-to-side jumps'

At the time, I was what you would call a total 'loner.' The popular, cool guys at junior high were the ones in the basketball or soccer clubs. Meanwhile, I spent three years in the table tennis club, a plain existence that never stood out.

Even when I liked someone, I didn't have the courage to confess my feelings. I was dominated by an unfounded inferiority complex, thinking, 'Someone like me, anyway...' I wasn't good at studying, either. The only thing I could boast about was that I was a little fast at side-to-side jumps. That was the kind of unremarkable junior high student I was.

My idol back then was Ryosuke Yamada, a super idol who continues to shine even today. Going to concerts with my mother was my only joy, but I had such low self-esteem that I genuinely thought, 'If people around me knew that someone like me was a fan, they would laugh at me.'
2. The day the 'urban legend' arrived at my house

The summer of my third year of junior high. While looking at a photo taken when I went out with my mother, she said half-jokingly, 'Why don't you try applying to Johnny & Associates?' While slurping udon, I wrote a resume and sent it in, half in doubt.

A few months later. It was one day during my lazy life as an examinee, where I had already retired from club activities and was just going to arcades while looking for a high school I could somehow get into.

When I got home, a fax had arrived. 'You have passed the document screening. Can you come to the audition on October 24th?'

It was the moment that the 'urban legend' of the date-specific invitation, which stars talked about on TV, appeared right before my eyes.
3. The 'reality of selection' I saw at Japan's largest entertainment mecca

The day of the audition. Wearing a jersey I had just bought at Don Quijote with clumsy hands and Nike shoes, I headed to the venue.

I happened to be in the elevator with members of Kis-My-Ft2, who had just debuted at the time. When I entered the venue, 200 rivals were gathered with number tags on their chests.

The assigned song was Hey! Say! JUMP's 'Arigato ~Sekai no Doko ni Itemo~'. I, who had been hiding in the shadows in the table tennis club until a month ago, was now standing in the place that produces Japan's greatest entertainment.

Johnny-san was also at the venue. He was stuffing his cheeks with McDonald's as a gift and chatting while freely drinking beverages from a vending machine. Behind that, adults were taking notes on 'valuable people' with sharp eyes.

Here, for the first time, I faced the 'reality where human value is selected.' 'If you don't take action yourself, nothing will happen.' 'People without confidence are not evaluated by anyone.' There was a raw evaluation standard there, as if it were a matter of life or death.
4. The magic of 'assigning value to yourself'

After the audition, on the way to the station, something surprising happened. Several girls who shouldn't have known me ran up to me and said, 'I'm rooting for you! Please give me your contact information.'

At that moment, I felt a shock like a lightning bolt. 'Just by changing the place and title, a special value was attached to me, who had been worthless until just a moment ago.'

This is the origin of the 'presentation of value' that I still cherish today. After that, I attended lessons a few times, but unfortunately, it did not lead to a path to debut.

However, from this experience, I noticed a certain 'law.' 'By assigning value to yourself and presenting it, those around you perceive that value as the truth.'

With just one mindset, the way you see the world changes. And I realized that how you are treated by others and the quality of the women you meet can all be controlled by yourself.

Now that I am this age, I don't talk about this story much to real-life friends because I'm afraid it will be 'thought of as a lie' or 'thought of as bragging.' But there is no doubt that my 'life without being rejected' today exists because of that summer when I was 15.

Next, I would like to talk about the steps of how I specifically incorporated this 'presentation of value' into my daily life.

Thank you for reading to the end again today.