May Our Travel Continue
A reflection on travel, family, and a year in the United States through the film 18×2
Spoiler warning: This post contains some spoilers for 18×2: Beyond Youthful Days.
I recently watched 18×2: Beyond Youthful Days on Netflix, a Taiwanese-Japanese romantic drama. I didn’t expect it to stay with me the way it did. It has also been a while since I last wrote about a movie in my spare time.
About 18×2: Beyond Youthful Days
The film follows Jimmy at two points in his life: at eighteen, just after graduating from high school, and at thirty-six, looking back on the choices that brought him there.
As a teenager, Jimmy meets Ami, a Japanese backpacker four years older than he is. Their brief encounter changes his life in ways both wonderful and painful. Eighteen years later, after being fired from the company he founded, Jimmy travels to Ami’s hometown in Japan.
Some people might see 18×2 mainly as a romance. What stayed with me, though, were the quieter ideas woven into its scenes, conversations, and beautiful settings.
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The Journey Is Not Always About the Destination
“Traveling is fun because you never know what will happen.”
One idea from the film has stayed with me: a journey becomes meaningful partly because we cannot know exactly what will happen along the way. Jimmy sets out for a place on a map, but he is looking for more than a destination. He is trying to make peace with his past and with himself.
The people he meets on the way may only be there briefly, yet, like Ami, they still leave a mark. The film reminds me that a journey is not just its starting point and its destination. It is also the conversations, changed plans, passing trains, and strangers we may never meet again.
We often treat life like a checklist: graduate, find a job, get promoted, go back to school, and chase the next achievement. There is nothing wrong with having goals. But sometimes we become so focused on where we are going that we forget to notice what is happening along the way. Enjoying the present can mean more than simply reaching the end.
Jimmy travels to look back. I came to the United States hoping to look forward. After a year here, I have realized that the two are not so different. Going far away often makes us think about home, the decisions we made, and the people who helped us get this far.
Sometimes We Just Need to Rest
It has already been a year since I came to the United States. A year since I left home, my family, my job, and a familiar life to become a student again.
In some ways, the year has flown by. It feels like only yesterday that I was trying to figure out Pittsburgh’s bus routes, where to buy groceries, and how to settle into the rhythm of classes. But when I think about the assignments, exams, changing seasons, conversations, and video calls with my wife and daughter, it also feels like a very long year. I cannot wait to see my daughter again, who will soon start elementary school. Will she still want a hug from her Dad? Will she still want to play chase with me? I look forward to finding out.
The way 18×2 moves through time made me think about this. The past is not always far behind us. A place, a song, a meal, or a conversation can bring it back in an instant. Sometimes the distance between then and now is no wider than a memory.
Perhaps that is how journeys work. While we are living them, the days can feel ordinary. Only when we stop and look back do we see how far we have come. Maybe we need to pause and rest once in a while, too.
People Come and Go, and That’s Okay
Leaving on my own was not an easy decision. My wife was still working in Indonesia, and our child already had school and a routine there. Moving everyone at that point was not realistic, so for a while we lived our lives in two different places.
Distance made small things precious: a short conversation before bed, photos from an ordinary day, or hearing my daughter talk about her school. The time difference was sometimes difficult, but we gradually found a new rhythm and ways to stay present in one another’s lives.
When my wife and child visited me in Pittsburgh, ordinary moments felt extraordinary. Walking together, sharing a meal at the same table, or simply being in the same room reminded me that home is not just a place. Home is the people who make us feel whole. Their visit lasted a little over two months, but the memories have stayed with me.
Jimmy and Ami’s story is, of course, very different from mine. I do not want to compare the loss in the film with the temporary distance my family and I have experienced. Still, the film reminded me that our time together is limited, even when we do not know where that limit is. That makes the seemingly ordinary moments worth being fully present for.
“I got to see snow for the first time and made a young friend!”
That line also feels close to my experience. During my studies, I have made new friends from the United States, Europe, India, China, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Some have already graduated and moved on to the next chapters of their lives. I am grateful to all of them for being part of my time here in America. And after experiencing winter here, I am also a little more grateful for the warmth of a tropical country.
May Our Travel Continue
In the end, life is not about changing the past or endlessly asking, What if things had gone differently? It is about making decisions and living with them, together with the people we love.
I do not know exactly where our next journey will take us. There may be a new city, a new job, new challenges, or a chance to return to a quieter life at home. For now, I want to keep learning, be more present, and prepare myself a little better for Pittsburgh’s cold November wind.
A year of living on my own in the United States has taught me that a journey is not just about how far we go. It is about whom we miss, what we learn, and who we become before we find our way home.
To my wife: I’ll be back soon. Thank you for waiting for me. May our travel continue, wherever life takes us next.
Image credits: The film stills above were sourced from The Movie Database (TMDB); the TMDB uploaders are named in the captions. Copyright remains with the respective rights holders. This post is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.