I have almost always avoided Facebook, making friends online and date.com because that’s not how I want to relate to the world or communicate with my friends or my family. I believe this internet society of ours and our smart phones make out lives more convenient. For instance, I am from Japan and I use Skype to talk to my family and my friends. I am satisfied with using it: however, technology leaves an empty space in my mind to wonder if true feeling and thoughts really touch them or not. I believe true relationships never leave any space or time to doubt. I easily consider people as the other who depend on technology of communication that really forget how to truly interfere with one another. I have a great story to prove that true intimacy is not found online.
When we were twenty years old, some good friends and I decided to go camping in Nagano in japan which was a four hour drive from our city. It was summer and we wanted to explore and, more importantly, there was a nightclub there, which was hip and attracted beautiful women. We were attracted as well. When you are 20 years old, 89% of your time you think about girls. We decided the time, the location to camp, and everything else we needed to over the course of a night at my house, All seven of us couldn’t stop talking about the next day’s trip.
The next morning, when we woke up, we immediately put our sleepy heads in to our ugly rented van. No matter how tired we were, it was easy riding all the way to Nagano. Only four people had driver’s licenses, so Takeshi, Paul, Gen, and I drove the van. We had serious noise blasting from radio, and the people who weren’t driving opened up some bottles of liquor. We all felt as if the small world of the van was the whole world we needed at the time.
After reached the campsite in Nagano, at four forty-five pm, we made our move quickly. The tents were put up well from our rushed point of view. We were ready to make a fire and we all became, to see the psychological term, drunken monkeys. The experience was so much fun not only getting drunk, but also talking to the many people at the camp. We all became instant brothers and sisters in front of the fire. Time was ticking, but we all wished the time would never end.
That night we headed to the club we had dreamed about going to. We didn’t make the stupid decision which would have been driving a van after drinking large amounts of our anonymous alcohol. We all managed to think clearly enough, and decided that walking. Ryu started to sing Ring of Fire out loud. I told him his accent for the song was punk Japanese Cash. Ryu really liked Johnny Cash a lot, so did we all. Almost everybody felt that walking a long distance at night wasn’t such a bad idea. We sang, drank, and danced on the road. The night sky asked us if all we did in our lives was to have fun and enjoy being. Maybe that was all we did, but I think It doesn’t matter how old we are now; I hope and believe, that everybody who was there remembers that experience. Nobody could teach us “No Pain No Gain”, yet.
The pain, which we never expected to encounter, was actually waiting for us on the road. Paul saw a stray cat on the road and he tried teasing. He was catching that cat carefully while a speeding car was coming right toward him. The moment stopped us. We slowly saw blood being to appear and his body was flying.
At the hospital, we asked ourselves what had happened to us. We all thought this trip was going to be nothing, but fun. We argued over and over who was at fault or blamed everything about that situation. I felt that talking and arguing was a waste of our time. All we had to do was believe in him, and believe he would survive. Luckily, he came back to us. The operation was successful, but due to the damage the accident caused, the doctor decided to amputate his arm to save his life. When Paul got regained his consciousness, he was speechless and cried over the tragedy. We all cried a lot, but funny thing was Paul said that we didn’t have to be sad. He also said he just lost one good arm, but he didn’t lose his friends. We embraced his strength that saved all of us.
We have always kept in touch no matter how far I am from Japan. They are great friends. I can’t find friends like them on eBay. They are priceless friends. Having true relationships is not a lot more important than a lot of stuff we stress out about. Money can’t make us happy. Cars don’t listen to you. Staring at Facebook pictures doesn’t make you have a true relationship. I am glad to know that and I am glad to share it with you, so please don’t facebook me the others!!
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