WSJの大坂選手の記事。今はネットで閲覧できますが
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This year brought so many changes in the world and in so many people’s lives. As someone who has spent most of my adult life on the road traveling, the pandemic taught me the beauty of stillness. We are made to believe that the more we do and go and move, the more productive we are, but the pandemic proved that’s not always the case. Just because you are always moving doesn’t mean you are moving your life in a creative and positive direction.
The inability to travel grounded me not only physically but also in my character. It allowed me to explore and expand my mind and my heart and to grow in new ways. Without spending part of the year at home in relative stillness, I could not have made the realizations about the world that I did. For the first time I was able to read and watch the news more often and more in depth and to understand the issues affecting the world. As a tennis player, I haven’t always been able to do that. It’s ironic that, without travel, I became more globally aware.
I also discovered that I am now very comfortable in my own skin—with who I am and where I come from. That has given me the confidence to speak up and use my voice, where appropriate, to address issues that I care about. I didn’t always have that strength or conviction.
For many people, having this time at home with loved ones has been a silver lining to the pandemic. It helped me to learn that my own happiness has much more to do with success off the court than on it. Most people who are happy in their personal lives tend to be more successful in their professional ones. You can’t put a price on spending time with family and friends, and the pandemic has taught us all not to take that for granted.
The tragedy of it all is self-evident, but there have been positive offshoots. For me, the pandemic has allowed me to reset and reassess my priorities and evaluate everything. I’m hugely ambitious, so I definitely want to continue making progress on the court. But now I know that my real success will be determined off the court. The world still has a lot of healing to do, but if we stick together with love and kindness, we will move forward stronger than before.