I’ve been following the rules for 25 years now. Though my path has not been the same as every other person, I did do everything as a normal person in society ought to do. I did primary school, secondary school, high school (of which a part was home schooling) and then I went to college (I even had a dorm). In 2017, I started a student job as a climbing-trainer and studied well. Then later in 2020, I started working part-time as a climbing-trainer and studying part-time at home for my second bachelor.
Everything went according to plan: I was building a career and everything in my life was given. I worked hard and I got good results. But I never really had time for myself, never have I had the time to make my own choices. I got opportunities and I took them in a rush, afraid I might miss something, afraid people would be disappointed if I did not do what was expected of me. Finally, this caught up with me. I needed to make a choice that would be completely my own, go on an adventure without a plan. My whole life was written before it even started. From the moment I started climbing, I knew I would do everything in the climbing community. I knew I would study to become a great climbing coach; I knew I would do competitions for the rest of my life and I knew I would grow old in this sport and hopefully make enough money to live (hopefully make a liveable wage). But suddenly I realized that I missed something along the way. Because of my big childhood plan, I missed part of my freedom. The freedom to mess up, the freedom to discover who I am, the freedom to live without pressure. I had every year precisely planned as a preparation for the next year, but never were my goals yearly, always long-term goals, that flowed over into even longer-term goals. Never have I had a deadline that actually stopped. There was always the next deadline, the next plan, the next step and the next assignment.
And that is why I made a decision. And I confess, I made that decision in December, but I’m only telling you now, ’cause for a long time, I’ve been thinking, that maybe this decision was the wrong one. Because, I was made for this job, I’m a dream chaser and I’m a planner and I’m ambitious. I really love teaching kids to climb and I really love the group I’m training. I love teaching climbing values and climbing techniques. And I love helping my athletes achieve their dreams. But I can always do that, and though these kids will grow each year and though I will miss them next year, I want a change. It’s only now I’m starting to feel like this is the right decision. To quit my job as a climbing-trainer and start working as a football coach. No, I’m just kidding. I don’t know anything about football.
So, here begins my new story. I’ll start by going over the plan. Ha, and again, I’m kidding. My plan is to go on an adventure, without much of a plan. So, for now I’ve got September, October, November and December free. To travel and to explore. Where to? I don’t know. How? I don’t know. With who? I don’t know. When? Then.
People ask me all the time. What is your plan? What are you going to do? And each time I tell them to ask questions I can actually answer. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know anything. I don’t know what I (will?) want.
Life is so complicated and I’ll just figure it out along the way.
So, hopefully I’ll be writing a lot of articles about my adventures and my self-discovery over the next couple of months. Because of my rushed lifestyle these last 6 years, I’ve had a great lack of time to write my articles, which I really like to do.
So, again, here’s to next year full of adventures and zero plans. Maybe I’ll just book a flight to Australia and spend some time on the beach. Ha ha.
Or maybe, I’ll just stay at home and find a regular job and a steady rhythm.