You Don't Have to Be Superman

Today is purely a diary of random thoughts.Feel free to skip it! I'm Juane*. Hello.

I am about to have a meeting with someone who I can say is a benefactor of my life.Even before entering the conference room, the scene of that day vividly revived, and my heart is full.

It's a story from when I was running desperately as a newly established coordinator at RCE, an ESD promotion agency of the United Nations University.

The job requirement was "Think of something fun" and "What you do is up to you", which is very rough if I think about it now. "What? Sounds interesting!" I tried thinking that there would be few people coming with such a recruitment.When I opened the lid, the competition rate was considerable.The secondary interview room was surrounded by 10 judges, with a minutes clerk behind and a secretariat on the side... one chair placed alone in the center of a large room.It was exactly a pressure interview.

The other examinees I saw in the waiting room were all intelligent, dignified, and impeccable.In contrast, I was a "heterogeneous existence" who spent half of the week in a kimono and was wearing a kimono even when I went to pick up my resume.What I talked about in the interview was the story of launching a local hero and doing environmental education, and the story of a project to go to the sea with children with severe disabilities using an amphibious vehicle, which I was focusing on at the time.

"Ah, I failed this. I'm completely out of place." I remember leaving the venue half giving up, feeling like I was buying laughs from surroundings.

Miraculously passed, and the work that started was unimaginably harsh.The true identity of the word "anything is fine" was "anything is fine" while being bound by the government's high standards and rules. In an era when ESD and SDGs were strongly considered to be different things, I suffered from the divergence from my beliefs, adjusting existing projects that I always held about 20, and new projects that I had to create every month. In addition, there were many irregular big jobs and miscellaneous duties...

Progress management couldn't catch up, and the sticky notes pasted all over the desk were enough to fold into a book. Days of turning it all alone... My personality of "I want to achieve if there is a goal" and "I want to solve if there is a problem" drove me further. Before I knew it, I was convinced that I had to be a "Superman who can do anything", and my heart was exhausted and tattered.

When I had been doing that for about two years... a person from an environmental support organization in a certain country said this to me.

"You know, partnership is the key to SDGs, right? In the coming era, it's not Superman, it's One Piece."

"It's good to bring each other's abilities and work as a team. It makes me angry to see you getting tattered trying to respond to the current situation. The current situation where your true charm dies is absolutely not good."

The moment I heard those words, what I had been holding back broke, and I cried loudly without worrying about public eyes.After that, he shared these words with many people as "the essence of how to proceed with ESD and SDGs in the future" even in large - scale international presentations.

Even after I left this position, I have opportunities to talk with him occasionally.Every time, the words "You don't have to be Superman" that I received that day become a warm ocean current flowing at the bottom of me.

Now, I have many friends with special abilities next to me.The current style of challenging various things with Jun - san as an artist of two people in one...Actually, it might be because of his words.

Now, the meeting begins.With the words I received that day in my heart, what kind of new project can I create with him today ? I can't wait.

I'm off.

Juane *