In Japan, we have two “beginnings” in one year.
One is the New Year in January, and the other is the new school year in April.
When the new year starts, I now hope that I can simply live safely through the year.

I read The Answer Is on the Third Floor of City Hall by Yume Tsujido.

The book kept the “feeling” of the COVID-19 days.

In the early days of COVID-19, people who got infected were treated as if they had done something wrong.
Now I think that, no matter how much we tried to isolate people, most of us were going to get infected anyway.
But society became very strict because everyone was afraid of the unknown virus.

Still, I think our fear at that time was not wrong.
If many people had gotten sick at the same time, hospitals would not have worked.

I remembered that I once believed a pandemic would never happen.
But when it really happened, I even thought, “Maybe humanity will not survive.”

Even so, people accepted the situation, lived through it, and overcame it.
It was a very hard time, and some people are still suffering.
But I felt strongly that humans have the power to “get through” difficult times.

There was a time when we could not buy masks or flour.
But I did not feel too stressed.
I thought, “If everyone cannot buy it, then it is okay.”
The feeling that “I am not the only one having a hard time” supported me.

Classes moved online, and suddenly IT skills became necessary.
It was difficult, but it also helped me grow and learn new skills.

Then generative AI developed very quickly.
AI can now write, draw, make music, and even talk.
This made me think about what it means to be human.

For me, “being human” means imagining things that do not exist.

AI can create something that “seems possible” based on what already exists.
But AI cannot build a world based on something that does not exist.

For example, faith.
I do not have religious faith, but I can understand people who do.
I do not believe in ghosts, but I can imagine a world where ghosts exist.

I can think about things I do not believe in as if they are true for someone else.
I can create something that does not exist in my world and think about it.

This ability to imagine “things that are not there” is a human weakness and also a human strength.

Humans live by imagining things that do not exist.
Because of that, we feel fear, we feel hope, and we try to understand others.

I believe this power of imagination is at the center of being human.