Finding the Being Within: May 2012

Monday, May 21, 2012

Three Years Since Graduation

April 21st, 2009 will be a date I will always remember. It not only marked the culmination of an defining chapter in the story of my life, but most importantly, it marked the beginning of a new one. I remember asking my parents following the graduation ceremony to accompany me to one of UBC's most prestigious libraries (and a second home to me throughout those marvelous five years) and take the shot you see above. I had always pictured myself throwing my mortar board high up into the air in that very same spot each time I walked through the library’s main entrance. I wanted to capture that moment in order to remember it always.

I loved every minute of being at that university. It exposed me to a variety of points of view and perspectives about the world, which I would otherwise probably never have come across with. It pushed me to analyze everything from more than just my own perspective. It provided me with the opportunity to make connections with people worldwide and above all, it taught that if is up to be, it's up to me.

Life is after all, what you make of it.

In short, UBC gave me wings and inspired me to venture out into the unknown.

It wasn’t long before I found myself saying my goodbyes to friends and family and officially said sayonara to Vancouver. As soon as I fastened my seatbelt on that direct flight to Tokyo, I knew that my life would be changed forever. As it turns out, it did; in ways I could have never even imagined.

Although I knew where I was heading in very broad terms, I knew next to nothing about the place I would live in an other specifics. In fact when it came to Tsuruga city, all I had at my disposal was a wikipedia article which offered some very basic information and a pretty picture of a beach and a pine forest. Little did I know then, that the same beach in the picture (Matsubara beach) was about to become my backyard and that a couple of years later I would not only be taking my wife-to-be there on our very first date, but be strolling around with my son just a few months later.

The past three years have to a great extent seem to have flown by, but in the process I have learned and got to experience a variety of different things which I wouldn’t trade for anything. Among them, no doubt, becoming a husband and father have been the highlight.

If I could sum up the most important thing I’ve learned over the past three years since that graduation day is this:

There are some things you gotta experience to understand...

HAPPINESS is one of them.

...and it is undoubtedly better when shared.

May all your beginnings lead you to find it and always keep it present.

Tuum Est

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Cinco de Mayo: Why I Now Have Better Reasons to Celebrate It

Up until recently, I had never really been a big fan of "Cinco de Mayo" ("fifth of May"). I remember the days living in Canada when my Canadian friends would approach me to wish me a "Happy Cinco de Mayo" simply because I'm Mexican. What this day basically commemorates is the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces in the "Battle of Puebla" back in 1862, and it's celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla. Nevertheless, each year I would see posters and commercials announcing a big party to be celebrated at various bars, clubs, and restaurants on that day, and I would always be left wondering why the heck it was such a big deal of a day for them anyway. To my surprise I eventually came to learn that many people seem to mistake this day with "Mexico's Independence Day"-- the most important patriotic holiday in Mexico -- which is actually held annually on September 16th and is a real cause for celebration.

In any event, since last year's "5 de Mayo," this day has actually gained a whole new meaning in my life giving me reasons to celebrate it fully. Long-story-short, when Kaori and I we were planning our wedding a little over a year ago, we had originally decided to get married in Vancouver on this very day (May 5th, 2012) in the company of family and friends. I contacted a good friend of mine who is a well-known wedding photographer in Vancouver to get some advice and we started to look at venues and everything from here. I even told my co-workers about it at a formal dinner event last spring in which they made me go on stage and share my "happy news" with everyone. However, the Universe had different plans for us. As we were about to find out, a baby boy in my fiancée's belly decided that waiting for the wedding to happen until 2012 was too long, and thus decided to put everything on the fast-track. After hearing the amazing news of this wonderful being that was on his way to become part of our family, we decided to move up the wedding ahead of time by exactly a year. Thus, on 5/5/2011, we headed to City Hall to sign all the paperwork and became "legally" married. This event was followed by our actual Shinto wedding ceremony of the 29th of this same month last year at Kehi Shrine in Tsuruga, Fukui.

In retrospect, all of this simply goes to show that when a big change occurs in your life, it sometimes forces you to change direction. Regardless of how unexpected or difficult the new path may seem, you can be absolutely certain that there is magnificence for you on this new direction. In fact, you can be absolutely certain that the new path contains things that you could not have experienced otherwise. In short, your new direction transforms your life, and from a personal standpoint it has done so in such a way that it has directed me towards a life that I would not change for anything.

What makes today even more remarkable for us is that we happen to be celebrating much more than our "first year anniversary" as a married couple. Today also happens to be a public holiday in Japan known as こどもの日, which translates as "Children's Day," and is set aside to respect children's personalities and celebrate their happiness. Thus, I can't think of a better day and occasion to celebrate the life our beloved son, who is about to turn five-months-old.

Thus, "Cinco de Mayo" has come to bring a completely new reason to celebrate it for both my family and I personally. I very much look forward to celebrate many more in the upcoming future.