I’ve received the question more than two dozen times: “When your trip around the world is over, what are you going to do?”. The real answer is: I don’t know. Being a successful software sales professional has provided me with tremendous opportunity. I met the people that set me up on a blind date with the man that turns out to be the love of my life. I was enabled to pay off the massive amount of undergraduate loans I had from RPI. I eat at nice restaurants, I go on nice vacations. Most recently, I’ve positioned myself to go and see the world. I’m staying at hostels and eating PB&J, but hey, I’m doing it!
We recently spent a few days in Munich. There are outdoor beer gardens on every corner. On our last day there, we were exploring the Viktualienmarkt (outdoor market). Lots of food and lots of sun. We decided to treat ourselves to a Mass each (which if you haven’t been to Munich before you might need me to tell you that that means we each ordered a liter of beer - don’t judge - that’s what you do in Bavaria!). Anyways, in the beer garden we sat down next to a woman I’d guess was in her late 60s. She liked to talk. We quickly learned that when its that hot in Munich you can’t sit inside so you go to the beer garden and alternate a beer then water until the sun sets. Anyway, this woman had lived all around the world doing jobs in finance and marketing and still till this day working on small cargo ships that transport shipping containers all over the Baltic and North Sea. When she asked me the question, “When your trip around the world is over, what are you going to do?”, and I said I wasn’t quite sure, she said “there was a Chinese philosopher who once said, 'when you’ve become an expert at something that means it is time to stop doing that and become an apprentice at something else'.” Well, I’m not saying that by any means I’ve become an expert at software sales, but that really, really got me thinking: wouldn’t it be challenging to do something else and set out to become an expert at that?
Well, after one day in Berlin, I sit here wondering, have I figured out what I’m going to do when this worldwide tour is over?
It only took a few hours for me to fall in love with this city. I relearned things about Berlin that I probably memorized for a high school history test and then forgot circa 1996. At that time it wasn’t relevant and it wasn’t made interesting to me by the people telling me to read a textbook. Why didn’t they have me watch footage of Hitler or of the Berlin wall coming down? On a 4 hour walking tour given by one of the most passionate people on earth, I felt what it might have been like being a part of WW2 Germany or part of East or West Germany during the cold war. I laughed, I gasped, I cried. I didn’t expect any of this. I can’t put into words what how I felt about what it would have been like to live during the days of Hitler, or during the days of the Berlin wall, or what it would be like to be like my tour guide - a person who lives in Berlin a few months out of a year, for the past 15 years, to tell the story of a city he loves to travelers like me.
Only people that have known me for a very, very long time would know that I used to be a performer. Andrea, Lauren, family: thank you, for being awesome people and coming to so many dance recitals, violin concerts, performances of Annie, Wizard of Oz and Oliver. Mom and Dad: thank you for paying for all of those lessons, for buying me so many pairs of shoes, so many costumes and an absolutely beautiful violin. Seriously, thank you. When I got voted the “class actress” high school superlative, I wasn’t really proud of it, I was kind of embarrassed. I was the runner that got injured, got bored and said, “well, I guess I’ll use my voice instead” and tried out for the high school musical. I wanted to be the star athlete, not the lead in the school play. But you know what, deep down I equally loved both.
Yesterday I met a Canadian man named Brian who is passionate about Berlin. He’s also an actor. He’s been able to pair these two things together to give a traveler like me an experience they’ll never forget. Every single job I’ve ever been offered I’ve been told that I got it because of the passion I demonstrated during the interview process. Passion, actress, traveler - maybe I can combine these things to figure out which apprenticeship I can embark on next? Today I said to Jake, Brian is going to have to retire eventually, and this story of Berlin is so beautiful and tremendous that someone needs to take over and keep on telling it in the way he does. Maybe that should be me?
Jesslyn