K14 - Confidence – Knowledgeable Thinkers who are confident and explore new experiences (K14)
We all start life in the same state, knowing nothing, our mind is a blank slate. However as we live, we gain insight and experience, never to be the same again. This scenario is better put by Plato, in his famous allegory, The Cave. Please look at the above attached image of the cave as you read along. In this famous work by Plato, one is told to imagine three prisoners tied up to rocks, facing a wall. Behind the prisoners is a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners, people from the outside walk, casting shadows on the walls that the prisoners are forced to see for eternity. The Prisoners have never seen anything else so they do not realize that what they see are shadows of objects in front of a fire, much less that these objects are inspired by real things outside the cave. But! Imagine that one prisoner escapes, goes out the cave and experiences the world, a whole new experience compared to the mere shadows he had seen before. He has been enlightened, having experienced and seen something he cannot unsee. Now imagine that he goes back to tell his fellow prisoners who are tied up, about what he saw. But once he goes inside the cave, he realizes that his eyes have been blinded, and unable to see inside the cave. The fellow prisoners hear him and think he is crazy, as they do not understand nor comprehend the things he profess to have seen. And therefore they resist escaping, as they fear going outside. In simpler terms, what this means is that once one experiences and understands something, they cannot undo it, and others will not understand the importance of it, unless they too open their eyes to experience new things. If we fear learning new things, we are trapped in ignorance like unto the prisoners who remain chained, forever seeing glimpses of what reality could be, never really knowing what it is. I myself have seen this allegory apply to my life. When I was in America, I absolutely detested singing. I would just mouth the words in music class and when my teacher would ask me to sing, would comment that I sounded like a turkey. That hurt. I moved to Japan in 2016, and came to HIS, and once here my schedule had choir in it. And I was freaking scared and anxious, as I really did not enjoy singing with people. Sure enough, my first day here, I was asked to sing row row your boat in front of the choir. My voice cracked, I was sweating and I was embarrassed. At this point, I like to say that I was still a prisoner looking at a fraction of the reality I could be if I could sing. Fast forward a bit, and concert time was rolling around at my school, I for some reason wanted to challenge myself and make the most of the time I had in choir, so I started to sing, horribly at first, but then my teacher encouraged me to perform in a trio at the school concert. At first I was hesitant, but I agreed. I. Was. So. Bad. I literally couldnt get the dance down, and I struggled so hard, however I gave it my best. The above left picture is me putting on a show for 750+ people!, and I can proudly say I did my best. Once the concert was over, I was overcome with a feeling of pride and self satisfaction that I, a turkey had been able to sing in front of people! I never looked back. The year after that, I willfully pursued opportunities to sing and perform, and lo and behold I was given the opportunity to perform in a quartet with me being the lead character. I performed with all I had, unleashing my inner cheesiness, as I played my part as a boyish character who didnt want to grow up in the piece, I Wont Grow Up. I have attached a video clip of the performance above. This is definately a part of the best hours of my life. After this one, I was able to see music and performance from a whole new perspective, and I realize that that was the moment that I had come out of the cave, and seen reality and perspectives, I can now never unsee nor forget. For those who are reading this, the experience I felt you will most likely not understand, however I do encourage you to do something similar. Pursue new and mysterious things that scare you, and you will never look back. What I have learned from this experience is that Plato was right. Experiences make the man, and I love them. My goal is to pursue an online degree while working, so I can transfer to America once I have enough money. My side goals are, to go deep sea fishing for a summer gaining experience and money there as well. Although obscure this is my wish and my goal. I will not stop anything from letting me get experiences in my life.
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Tadashi ShichidaSenior @ Hokkaido International School Archives
June 2020
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