happiness is made of dreams (and watching One Piece)

Luffy inspires me.

Monkey D. Luffy is the main character in One Piece.

And his dream is become the King of the Pirates.

This dream inspires him and others. It gives him identity, purpose and confidence. And Luffy is public with his dream, allowing him to rally a crew to his cause.

I've always been struck how beautiful having a dream can be. During my gap year, I had a dream to found a startup. I was public about it and I went after it. I told a friend how excited I was and I told her that I was at a peculiar time in life where I could fight to make my dreams reality.

I felt so alive in that era of my life.

And so Luffy shows us how beautiful our own dreams can be. But he also shows us beautiful others' dreams are. Luffy makes a point of asking people he meets what their dreams are. He learns:

• Nami wants to map the entire world.
• Sanji wants to find the All Blue.
• Roronoa Zoro wants to be a master swordsman.

He wins them over his crew as friends in part because he cares about their dreams. He'd make a great manager, lol.

Takeaways:

• Ask your friends what their dreams are. My deepest conversation in 2023 started with asking a close friend about his current dream in life. His answer surprised me. And brought a new depth to our friendship.
• Get yourself a dream. Mine's to find love heh 🤗 and then after that probably to learn more Korean and visit Korea.
• Watch the live action adaptation of One Piece on Netflix. It's the best live action adaptation of an anime, perhaps ever. And it's so much fun to watch.