Lessons learnt from Naruto

 Lessons learnt from watching Naruto

Naruto is a story about a boy, who lost his parents ever since he was born and was ostracized by his own village because he was the vessel for the demonic Nine-Tailed Fox. However, throughout the series, Naruto strives hard to achieve recognition in his own village by vowing to himself to become the next Hokage (village leader). 

The audience would often find Naruto sadly sitting on a rope swing alone as the adults and children from the village showered him with cold, hateful looks. No matter how hard he tried to fit in and prove himself,  nobody really gave him a chance. He grew up without receiving any love from the people around him until the age of 12 where his first teacher gave him a chance and acknowledged him. I remember I started to watch this anime when I was around 8 years old. Cartoon Network would always broadcast Naruto around the time school was finished. At that age, my friends and I were just obsessed with the cool and dazzling battle scenes in the show. But as I grew up with the show, I began to realise that Naruto is much more than a show about ninjas fighting each other.

No Short Cuts in Life

The majority of the people that grew up in Naruto's situation would have ended up in a dark place where they would have hated the world around them which would stray them from the path of achieving something positive and meaningful in their lives. But Naruto gave himself a purpose in life at a very young age which helped him through all the hardships he had to face. By striving to become the Hokage, he knew that there were no short cuts in life and all he had to do was keep working harder and harder until his dreams become a reality. If you want to become a doctor, actor, lawyer, engineer or anything in life, just maintain your vision and BELIEVE IT! (A classic Naruto punchline for those who didn't know). Even when no one around you believes in you, as long as you believe in yourself, your efforts will eventually pay off.

Friendships: Quality over Quantity.

The other protagonist of the series is Sasuke. Sasuke is Naruto's best friend and rival. However, throughout the series, Sasuke abandoned the village and joined the dark side to achieve greater power. Although they had their rough times, Naruto never abandoned his best friend and spent years chasing Sasuke in hopes of bringing him home. In their final battle, they both fought to the point where they both lost an arm and despite the immense pain of seeing his best friend committing evil crimes and abandoning their friendship, Naruto never gave up on him and always saw a chance to pull Sasuke out of this darkness.

Their relationship has taught me that having one friend that truly cares about you and your happiness is far more valuable than having a large group of 'friends' that could care less about you. I use to think that it was important to have as many friends as I could, so I that it felt like I was doing the right thing and I was accepted by the people around me. But after the tough times were over, it was clear to me who were the ones that actually cared and mattered to me. Therefore, to those who are reading this, please do not take your true friends for granted and try to give back the kindness of their friendship to others in need. Now I hold this small group of individuals dear to my heart and I am glad to call them my friends for life.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for my next post.