When you meet someone for the first time, you are usually greeted with a “nice to meet you, what’s your name?“, but sometimes you are met with the question, ” who are you?“

I think it’s just me, but I get that a lot rather than a greeting. I’d ask myself too, “who am I?“

I’m Ryo, just another guy on Earth that happens to be alive. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”. I live by that quote, because regret is not a word in my dictionary. To me, every failure is a learning experience. Enough with the preachy life quotes, let’s move on.

My name. I’ve got a doozie of a story about my name. Apparently, I was supposed to have the name Ryu, which means ‘dragon’ in Japanese. My dad wanted me to be strong and fierce like one. But thanks to the doctor who was in charge of my birth certificate, a little stroke was added above the letter u, making my name what it is today.

My parents were devastated, but my mom quickly reassured my dad. She said the name Ryo means ‘stream’ or ‘current’ in Japanese, both in relation to water. So basically, I’m supposed to be like a current of water, sometimes destructive, other times calm. You know what that sounds like? Yeah, bipolar personality disorder. Don’t worry, I don’t have that… I think.

I was a shy, yet naughty little boy growing up, and growing up means going through change. The biggest change in my life that I can note… probably my transition from high school to college.

I can tell you right now, I did not like school. I could even say I hated it, probably because of the school itself. The only reason I went was because my friends were there. If we’re talking about grades, I was pretty average. I didn’t stand out from the crowd.

But in college, I wanted to change that part of me. I just felt like I wasn’t me. I wanted to open up more, show a bit more of this side of me that felt genuine. On the first day of college, I thought to myself: “Damn, my school life sucked. But hey, new environment, new people, new experiences”. I needed to tear the binds that kept me from being myself.

And so I did. I know a lot of people have trouble being themselves. But personally, it was really easy to show my true colors. Holding yourself back is a pain in the donkey. Thanks to that, I’ve been having more fun than I’ve ever had in my twelve years of mandatory school.

That’s it for now, a person can’t type their entire autobiography in less than an hour. …unless they can. Look forward to my future posts, enjoy the rest of your day.