Let’s take detours in life! ‘Unexpectedness’ is not drawn in ‘plans’.

The moment I stepped out of the hotel, it was eternal summer.
It's Singapore, one of Asia's largest cities.

It's a city I visit when I'm tired from work or feel like I can't go on anymore.
I like its compactness, as if a big city and the sea are all rolled into one.
Except for the high cost of living, everything about it was a comfortable place for me.

Every time I visit Singapore, I stay at Traders Hotel.
It seems the name has changed now, but it's a slightly upscale business hotel.
I like its convenient location with good access to the downtown area.

After having a drink at the hotel, I head to the beach.
The place I always go to is a beachside bar on Sentosa Island.
This place is a paradise with everything: beach, music, and pool.

The bar is in the pool, and we sit on chairs half-submerged in water, drinking.
The scorching sun turns into a pleasant temperature, uplifting my spirits just right.

There, I met a bartender.

He was a white man, clearly not a local.
However, Singapore is a country with diverse races, so it's not particularly unusual.
But something about him working behind the bar counter caught my attention, so I spoke to him.

When I asked, 'Is it fun working here?', he replied with a big smile, 'Yes'.
He looked so lively that I responded, 'It's your calling, isn't it?'
Then, with a beaming smile, he began to talk about how he started working.

Apparently, he used to be a backpacker.
He had been traveling all over the world, but he seemed to have fallen in love with this bar so much.
Eventually, he apparently pleaded to see if he could work there.
And so, he said, he somehow managed to get a job.

To put it simply, I was shocked.

I thought, what a person who works with such free-spirited ideas.

Thinking about it carefully, since he was a foreigner working, it might have been quite difficult.
However, when I heard his story, I couldn't help but feel a certain sense of respect.
Is it really possible to achieve one's ideals so casually?

Within my previous values, living abroad was not something one could do casually.
By no means was it a story that could be achieved with "I liked it, so I'll work here".

One would think about the future, and couldn't live that impulsively.
But looking at him, with his beaming smile, I strangely felt foolish.

I thought this was a great detour.

People always think about the future and live according to a certain roadmap.
If they stray too far from the path, they might not be able to return to the original place.

That's why they fear their steps straying.

But surely, there are incredibly happy moments on those straying side paths.
Even if everything ideal were on a side path, it's normal for us to still think about the risks.

But perhaps there's a turning point where I took a detour.
There might be interesting ideas, and I might reach a goal I never even considered.
Most of us have walked past such unknown, unseen possibilities, glancing at them sideways.

Can we truly say we've 'lost nothing' by doing so?

We rush along, walking briskly down the path we've chosen.
Just straight ahead, trying not to stray from the path as much as possible.

But isn't it okay to stop for a moment and thoroughly enjoy the surrounding scenery?
Isn't it okay to have enough leeway to take a detour at an interesting-looking side path?
Couldn't that invite unexpected possibilities and illuminate new paths in life?

We are always seeking innovative stimuli we haven't yet seen.
We are pursuing discoveries for the world that we haven't yet witnessed.

It's unthinkable for us to just glance at a detour and pass it by as merely a detour.
It's precisely because we take detours that new values and ideas, not on the roadmap, open up.

The bartender placed the drink and hamburger on the table and jogged away.
After pondering for a moment, I shifted my gaze to the sunset sinking into the beach.

I then gently poured the drink down my throat and took a breath.

Suddenly, I realized that a scene from my vacation had left a vivid impression of an important value.
My perception of life had changed slightly within me.