有同学给我发邮件，诉说自己的各种困惑。大意也是在老家的事业单位里无所事事，不喜欢，却又不知道该喜欢什么。我回复，如果不甘心，就去学自己喜欢的东西，等待机会找到适合的工作。

对方却满是忐忑和不安：可是学了就一定能找到工作吗？我喜欢英语，想做翻译，可是自己没有一点儿经验，就算把英语学得再好怎么可能会有人要我呢？我不是怕辛苦不愿意去学，而是我很害怕，英语专业毕业的那么多，自己学了之后，也许根本就没有用！

可是亲爱的啊，这个世界上，又有几个人，能够保证，自己现在所做的任何决定，付出的任何努力，就一定能够得到未来想要的结果，就一定是自己理想中“有用”的呢？

我有个朋友，从小就喜欢日本动漫和日剧，她常年熏陶下，可以听得懂大半日语日常对话。大三的时候，她突然下定决心要学日语，当时我们都吓了一跳——为了更方便看动漫和日剧而学习日语，这个理由也未免过于牵强和不着调。

然而，她还是去报了日语，本来喜欢赖床上抱着电脑刷新番（日本最近出的动画）的她，一周三节课，一次也没缺过。我们起初都以为她只是一时兴起，却没有想到，她一直坚持到了大学毕业。毕业前，她去考了一次日语二级，没有考上。她也没有从事任何和日语有关的工作，只是在一个报社任职。

I shook my head, "You're not even considering the possibility that you might be able to use your Japanese skills someday. You never know what opportunities might come up in the future."

She looked at me with a determined look, "I don't need to think about that right now. I just want to learn something new and enjoy it while I can. Besides, even if I don't end up using my Japanese skills professionally, it's still worth learning for its own sake."

I couldn't help but admire her dedication and passion for learning something she loved.

"Besides," she continued, "what if you do end up using your Japanese skills someday? Don't you think it would be worth all the effort and time you put into learning them?"

Her words struck a chord within me. I realized that there was truth in what she said - sometimes we have to take risks and invest time and effort into things we love before we can reap any benefits.

As for Yumi-san (the high school girl who had been chasing after Wataru-kun), her story is another testament to this idea of investing in oneself without knowing exactly when or how one will benefit from it.

She had spent years pining after Wataru-kun, doing everything from buying him breakfast treats to sending him care packages filled with his favorite snacks. Despite all her efforts, he remained indifferent towards her until finally telling her that he didn't feel anything romantic towards her.

Yumi-san was heartbroken but instead of giving up on love altogether; she used those feelings as motivation to improve herself both physically and mentally so as not give up on finding true love again later on down the road where maybe someone else could appreciate these changes more than others did before hand too since then they'd also see how much work went into making sure such improvements were made by going through tough times like this kind of experience helps people grow stronger & wiser over time!