Embracing the unknown

Many weeks have passed since my duration at Bhumi’s farm. So, what to do now? I asked myself. Maybe the north of Sweden or Spain again? Continue traveling, going home, or searching for a job? What am I doing here? All these questions came up, and I had to think and feel what is right for the moment and what I want to do next in my life.

Well, it was a phase where I had enough of meeting new people and volunteering. I just wanted to be in one place again and settle down for a time. No changing environment, no crazy adventures, just a normal daily life like back in the days. It’s funny to write that down, because normally you wouldn’t hear such words from me. But that’s also the reality of traveling, and I want to share that with you.

My mood was to learn and work, trying different things out (workwise) that I’ve not done before. Volunteering was a nice way to get in touch with new people and dive into new cultures, but to learn a specific skillset or get more knowledge about a topic that interests me is kind of difficult to find. On the side, I was wondering if there is no possibility to earn money with my skillset while being on the road and combine that with my interest of learning new things.

I searched for something in Germany, where I can combine a bit of the community and the learning/working aspect. I stumbled upon a community in the north of Germany (Wir bauen Zukunft), where they are focusing on sustainable living and innovation. Here, people come together to explore eco-friendly buildings, renewable energy, and self-sufficiency while sharing ideas through workshops and collaborative projects. They even have tiny houses on their property, so I was wondering if I could help within the community, learn to build some tiny houses, and earn a bit of money.

That sounded pretty awesome to me, and I signed up to come and have a visit at this place. So, the next stop was north of Germany. For that period, I tried a different approach, not planning that much, taking it as it comes, and seeing what the future brings. I put my thoughts and all my worries aside and tried to focus on the moment, deciding to live life where it leads me. Having fewer worries about the future and plans and embracing the uncertainty of life. And I’ll tell you, it was amazing.

Before I started to drive to the community, I randomly reached out to my mate, who should have been somewhere in the north of Germany. I was just resting in the parking place near the Lübeck ferry, with no concrete plans for the week. He wrote me that he was near Lübeck as well. Nice, I didn’t think about it a second and drove to his place, where he was helping a family with renovations around the house. A few hours later, I was welcomed by the loving family of Anja and Dennis, as well as my mate Florian, whom I’d met in Denmark at a Workaway. Awesome. Long story short: we had an amazing week together, helped with renovations in the old house, baked some delicious cakes, made some nice meals, rode bikes to the Baltic Sea, and met this lovely dude from Italy (Riccardo), who was volunteering next to us. If you had asked me before, I would have never expected that.

With that trust, I drove further to the community in Nieklitz. The area around “Wir bauen Zukunft” was impressive. It was a former nature science center, and there were so many different plants and trees all in one place. The property had several buildings, including a honeycomb house, a greenhouse to sleep in, tiny houses, and small cabins to rest during the visit. There were outdoor showers powered by solar, creative dry toilets, a swimming lake (used by nature and humans) this place had everything you can imagine (for an alternative lifestyle).

I was here for the Makerblitz, a week where many volunteers meet and help with a big task on the property. Our main task was to empty and restore the workshop next to the property. I got in contact with a lot of inspiring people who are supporting and following the visions of a better tomorrow. Loved it. I also met a French cyclist at the Makerblitz, who came all the way up, traveling across Europe with his bike. Guess what, at my previous Workaway, we talked about a French guy coming with his bike to volunteer in Lübeck. I just thought it wouldn’t be possible to meet this guy here. But hey, coincidence brought us here together, and he came to this place because he slept at one of the founders of the cooperative for a night and got involved in this project. It blew my mind.

Meanwhile, I followed my idea of finding work and learning something about tiny houses. I just heard that some people from the community wanted to visit the tiny house manufacturer next to the area. I hit them up and followed them to the workshop just to have a look. I got in touch with the owner, Aurelle, and within a few minutes, I had a job at the “Hauptsache Tiny” company. I just told him what I do, what I can, and showed him my van. Done. Wow, that was so easy, I thought. I remembered the advice of my mate Florian, who got a job at a restaurant in Denmark nearly the same way. We were just running around on the beach in Denmark, in sports clothes and ready to sip a beer at the beach. He ordered the beers and, in the next sentence, asked if they needed help in the kitchen as a chef. Florian needed some money but wasn’t even an educated chef, just a passionate cook. He just gave it a shot. While the waiter started to write the owner’s number on a paper, the owner overheard in the back of the kitchen, and a few seconds later, he took Florian back with him to the kitchen. The rest is history. He got the job within minutes. That situation blew my mind and showed me what you can achieve by just asking people directly, without over-planning. Don’t be shy and overcomplicate things. It doesn’t have to be as well-prepared as we’re always thinking it should be.

Anyway, I started working at the tiny house manufacturer and gave this whole situation a shot. I just wanted to see if carpentry and tiny houses were something to pursue or set aside. By the way, I also could earn some money, which was a nice addition. It turned out that I really enjoyed carpentry and tiny houses. It’s awesome to gain the knowledge and skills to build my own one day, though I wouldn’t pursue it as a full-time job. During my 4-week experience with the small team around Aurelle, Raphy, Tillmann, Jost, Salem, Hakeem, Leon, and Anna, I found a little family in this tiny house company, and I’m really thankful to have been part of it. We had many laughs building the tiny houses, cooked meals in an improvised kitchen, managed the creative chaos of the company, and enjoyed time together after work. There were so many cool things to write about those 4 weeks, but I don’t want to overload this post. Maybe I’ll give an update later.

After this time, I thought about spontaneously trying to work at a manufacturer for vans. I just called the company in Berlin and asked if they needed support, like the other time. And bing, I landed my next job just by asking directly and not being shy. This was awesome, and I could spend some time at the manufacturer in Berlin, visiting the city and gaining experience in building professional vans. Nice. This time, I worked temporarily on the CAD in the office, but after a short period, I also noticed that this is not the work I want to pursue in the future. But hey, it’s one more experience I can check off my “Maybe I should try out working as a…” list. I learned: The work experience is the same wherever I go. I came from a company that had nearly the same structures and processes—the difference is just that it’s another business. When cool projects like building tiny houses or vans get professionalized or capitalized, the fun and passion disappear, and in the end, it doesn’t matter where you work, it’s just work, nothing more. For me, the most important things are 1) the mission the company follows and 2) the people you’re working with. These are my most important keys to a good working environment; the work itself doesn’t matter that much.

While I was working again, I began to appreciate my nomadic lifestyle more and more. It’s a wild card for life, and now I feel more sure that I want to continue this chapter of my life a little longer. It also showed me that it is possible to earn money while being on the road, and it’s not even that hard, just ask. Now I can live a nomadic lifestyle without worrying about the moment when I’m running out of money. Embracing the unknown can feel a bit hard sometimes, especially when we have no plan for the future (our brain doesn’t like this state of mind). But I learned that in uncertainty lies life itself, and these weeks have shown me that there are so many more things in life than I thought would even be possible.