Ms. Atsuko Waka is the winner of the Osaka-San Francisco Sister City Association's speech contest. She is scheduled to visit San Francisco for three weeks starting around July 24. She is a student at Osaka College of Foreign Languages. Her winning speech is entitled "Joy in Life".

"Joy in Life "

Where does joy in life come from? I used to think that it would come from helping others and from having my talents and skills recognized and somehow appreciated. But, over the last few years, my view has changed.

When I was in high school, I met an American man here in Japan who was working as a volunteer carpenter. He told me about his experience helping people in poor nations, mostly Peru, and I was very impressed by his compassion and desire to help people. Soon after he left Japan, I read a book about Mother Teresa that also moved me greatly. In fact, these two people inspired me so much that I started to wonder, “If only I could live my life like them.” But now I realize that at that time I didn’t really understand to help others.

After graduating from high school, I started working as a nurse’s aid in a hospital thinking I would be able to do work similar to Mother Teresa’s by serving the patients in the hospital. But my idealism was in for a surprise. What I expected was a lot of doctors and nurses serving in the spirit of Mother Teresa, compassionate, and giving. But what I found instead, was a lot of gossip, a lot of rumors, and what looked like a lot of people doing a job simply because they had to. I was quite disappointed.

Still, at first I was determined to do what I thought I had to do, and that was to serve the patients, which I did with all my heart, because for me it was like I was training for the next stage: to serve people in some poor nation. But although I gained recognition and appreciation for my efforts from some people, others hinted that I was taking things too seriously, and this made me uncomfortable. I felt frustrated and thought, “Why aren’t things going the way I want? I’m trying so hard to do my best and to do something good.”

Then I came across a phrase spoken by Mother Teresa herself. “It is easy to love people far away; it’s not always easy to love those people who live beside us.” It suddenly hit me that perhaps I had been thinking too far away. Although I was serving patients here, I was thinking and living in a world of poor people in Peru and India and saving the world . . . And I wasn’t really paying enough attention to the people nearest me.

Eventually I left the hospital, but around the same time, I met another person, a very good man from Hokkaido. He also told me something special about serving others. He said, “You need to be ready to be misunderstood, you need to be free from yourself, and you need to be willing to keep trying, keep giving, and keep loving without desiring something in return.”

It finally started to dawn on me that perhaps it was my own spirit that had been poor. Even though for a time I tried my best, just because things didn’t go the way I wanted, I got frustrated and gave up being considerate to people right in front of me.

But I just cannot give up. I really do want to help or serve others, for the benefit of all. And fortunately, I think I’m finally starting to see what serving others actually means. It isn’t self-centered, but instead, it’s a common spirit. And it isn’t the action, but the spirit behind the action. If you really want to help, serve or care for someone, then what matters most, is not how much you do, but how much sincere, undemanding love or compassion you put into what you are doing.

And the people we should be serving first are those who are nearest to us, and nearest of all, is the family. And if on that level we can learn to love and care for one another, then that harmony can hopefully grow and spread into our neighborhood, our schools, workplaces, cities, nations, and even the world.

I realize now that Mother Teresa and those who have inspired me are on a different path in life. But I think I can see the world they have been trying to create, a unified and harmonious world. And if I can somehow be useful, even in a small way, towards helping to bring about that world, that would give me great joy.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.