razorsaw:

This moment actually really spoke to me. Because I’ve been exactly where Jou is right now.

I’ve seen a fair amount of people talking about how Jou was able to balance his schoolwork and his being a Chosen Child in 02. How it doesn’t make sense for him to be struggling with this. But Jou himself says it best:

“Even though you get over it once, the same questions return.”

I’ve been there. I keep going there, and on some level, we all have. What you seemed to be able to handle once, what you seemed to have all the answers for once before, suddenly isn’t so easy. That’s not regression, that’s not backsliding – that’s life.

Jou is not in the same place he was in in 02, either. He was still a teenager then, and while there was pressure then too, his childhood is coming to an end and all of it’s becoming heavier. His grades aren’t as good, competition is harder, and the onus is on him to succeed. Old anxieties can return, situations can change, and sometimes you’re not always ready for that to happen as much as you might have been before.

I think that’s a valuable lesson for people. Even as you grow and mature, you’re going to continue stumbling and falling. You shouldn’t be judged for having to “learn the same lesson all over again”. Life isn’t a video game where completing one challenge means you never have to go back to it.

Sometimes the path you take leads you right back to where you were before. And it’s not a bad thing if that same problem isn’t as easy as it used to be.