Almost four and a half years ago, I was frantically wondering around my new campus with no idea what I was supposed to do. If I didn’t have class for another five hours, could I just drive home? Should I wait to eat or buy some of the ridiculously expensive food here? Where the hell is the SEB building and why can’t I find it? The freshman college student is perhaps the most confused creature on this planet; next to Elliot, that is. You go from living your whole life with a lot of restraints and set schedules to having a large world open to you with very little limitations; of course if you took advantage of that freedom, you might find things to be a little tougher. Even though I absolutely had to maintain a certain GPA and attend all of my classes, there were suddenly new rules to the game I’d been playing my whole life.
Despite all of these big changes, there was one thing I was absolutely certain about: I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to work in fandom and I wanted to focus on anime.
You can only imagine how that dream went over with my mom. [Note: my mother is very supportive, but she did compare this dream to being the drummer of Rush. She wasn’t entirely wrong!]. I didn’t blame people for thinking my aspirations were weird. When people go to college, people often think there’s an important reason for it; to write about Japanese animations doesn’t seem that critical in comparison. But I wasn’t completely alone. I met plenty of students who wanted to be in the video game or entertainment industry. Even as a freshman, I knew that the news industry was very expansive and there was a lot of hope in a career.
College was a very weird experience for a number of reasons; namely that I’m slightly introverted and don’t like parties, so nothing looked like the movies. More importantly, I’ve had more hardships and loss these last four+ years than I’d ever experienced prior. Becoming an adult meant more than just learning how to live on my own or how to budget. It became about learning how to live without certain people, watching the ones you love go through impossible pain and figuring out what loneliness really was. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t miserable, but I certainly experienced a lot of hardships I’d never faced before. I’d lost friends I thought I’d keep forever, partners I thought would love me till the sun stopped rising, family members who got sick, passed, and I’d never see again while others continued to age and change. I’ve watched friendships change into strangers and even went through two life-threatening experiences I wasn’t sure I’d mentally recover from.
This is a lot of negativity, I know, but it’s not uncommon. A lot of people go through this stuff and that’s a part of the process; there is no “time” for these things to happen, they just do. You grow up as you go. Among all of the negative experiences I had, there were a lot of great ones too. Some of my favorite moments included deciding to pick up a second degree that I really enjoyed, getting career advice and encouragement from a journalist I admire, creating a company that people really believe in, watching friendships bloom, meeting my niece after she’d been born, adding to my own family with small critters, meeting my partner, moving out together, starting an adult life. I went through two exceptionally fun internships, wrote for plenty of well respected places, got my first paid article and eventually my first paid job in the fandom field while also finishing a 25 page praxis research paper. These are among the many other accomplishments I’m really proud of both academics-wise and career-wise.
If you’ve followed me this far, you’ve probably noticed: none of this has to do with One Piece. Let me tell you pal, you’re not wrong. Not a damn thing in either of these strange lists has to do with an anime whose episode count is longer than my ramblings [which can get pretty long]. But the real secret is that, it actually does.
Throughout all of these insane events that have happened over the last few years, One Piece has always been in the background. In a lot of ways, it was the manga and anime that really made me passionate about the fandom and even made me consider getting a career as a journalist. It helped me with my creativity, my writing, my world building. I realized that not every project has to be a one-shot; it can be something so much more. I bonded over this show with my friends and even my partner, who’s pickup line literally was, “So, you watch One Piece?” From the beginning of when I first got into anime as a middle schooler all the way up until now, as a college graduate, I’ve been growing alongside this series.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things wrong with One Piece, it’s far from perfect. It’s a great shounen, it’s perhaps one of the best, but that doesn’t mean it’s flawless. I recognize ways that the writing can be toxic or perhaps inaccurate, but at the same time there’s a lot of great aspects that helped me piece myself together. There was one aspect that really helped me in particular. You’d think friendship, because that’s all Luffy ever talks about, but it’s something else. It’s the idea of moving on.
The Straw Hats are constantly changing their life. In fact, before anyone even got on that ship, each character had a backstory that was riddled with their own traumas and tragedies. Each one was different from the next, just like the many islands and strange lands they visit. Yet, each character knew that they’d made new friends and found a way to achieve their dream, so they took the opportunity with arms open wide. Each arc is something new; a new place, new friends and virtually a new story that really never changed. It’s just like life. You’ll go through a lot of phases and you’ll be bent in a lot of places, but it’s still the same you. You’re just changing.
I’ve changed a lot since I started college. I wouldn’t even consider myself the same person in a lot of ways. But, like the Straw Hat Crew, I’ve accepted each new arc as an opportunity to improve myself. To move on. Horrible things will always happen, but so will many other positive ones. There’s a lot that I can say I’ve done, but there’s so much more I want to do. This isn’t me writing about how I’ve “made it” or how I’ve done something unique despite the odds. The truth is, I haven’t. I don’t know when enough will be enough, but I know I’m nowhere close to where my aspirations peak. There’s still so much I want to grow with my career, hobbies and the people who matter to me. So I’m off on the next arc of my adventure; just like in One Piece.
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