The rabbit from Aesop’s Fables, who carelessly dozed off along the way and lost the race to the tortoise, seems to have been a bit too extreme; it is hard to believe that a rabbit would lose to a tortoise just from a brief nap. However, if it had been the tortoise who fell asleep instead of the rabbit, the outcome would have been obvious. We ordinary people have no choice but to work diligently day by day, just like the tortoise in the story. Yet, when we are young, it is often the ordinary among us who become conceited and naturally find themselves wanting to imitate the rabbit.
Looking back on my life so far, I wonder if I, too, was nothing more than a foolish tortoise—steeped in pride, asleep, and spacing out. Although the tortoise is celebrated as a long-lived and auspicious creature, waking up at this late stage only to finally realize my true self will not change the fact that I am, by nature, a slow-moving tortoise. There is no way I could ever catch up to the rabbits sprinting far ahead. Nevertheless, this moment marks a new starting point. For the rest of my life, I want to dedicate myself to physics education in my own tortoise-like way—not rushing, but moving forward steadily, one step at a time. And just as with literature and art, I want to convey to the younger generation that physics, too, holds excitement, deep emotion, and a sense of healing.
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