WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE

The Biggest Secret of My Life is Where I’ll be Two Months From Now

Talking about where I’ll see myself in five or ten years isn’t something I’m having conversations about

Every few months I’m back to sending out CVs and responding to the less than 50 percent messages I receive back from companies. Once an offer is accepted the work isn’t done. Applying for a visa, booking flight tickets, getting housing and transportation organized are tasks I’m facing every season.

And yet. I wouldn’t want to have it any different. At least not for now. I do enjoy the freedom our lifestyle comes with despite all the work it requires me to do.

The unknown can be stressful. If you let it be a stressing factor. But like everything in life, you have a choice in how you approach and look at things.

People often ask me if I’m not stressed not knowing what my future looks like. Not having a permanent working contract and a stable income must feel stressful at one point.

Honestly, I’d feel a lot more stressed having a permanent working contract in Germany being forced to stay in a country with an unknown but possible bad outlook into the future and certainly not knowing I’d ever get a pension paid out despite all the taxes I’m paying each year.

Living the lifestyle I do, taking on seasonal work every few months and living in different countries around the globe offers me a lot more opportunities and potential safety measures for the future than staying in one place would do for me.

Anyhow, I’m not saying everyone should live the way I do,I only try to explain how I live and why I’m happy the way I chose my lifestyle.

The most asked question

And here I come to the next step which is the most asked question to me and my husband.

Do you know where you will be next summer (winter)?

Often, I do respond to the question with

• No.
• Not yet.
• We have a few options.
• We’re waiting for our visa approval.

And only when the last stage is passed, I’m happy to talk about where we’re going. Being married to a man carrying an African passport, the last step of getting a visa is often the obstacle we can’t overcome. This restricts us on which offers we can accept but doesn’t limit us on where to go.

It just means a lot more paperwork and preparations are required. And since I’m the one privileged with one of the strongest passports in the world, I feel guilty and always deal with the visa application process for him too.

Once the visa is approved booking a flight ticket is just a question of when. Looking for flights at different dates and various departure and arrival airports nearby, we usually soon come down to a favorite one and hit the button.

Done.

We’re going.

The excitement

I’m honest. Once the flight is booked my excitement goes through the roof. Taking a job in a foreign country isn’t so much for me about the work but about the smaller and bigger trips we can make from there to explore the surroundings.

Depending on where we go, we book accommodation and transportation in advance but often just for a few days before finding in the new country a longterm rental.

Sure, starting every few months at a new job comes with worries and maybe anxiety as well. How will my employer be? Will I get along with the new colleagues? Am I good enough for this job and its requirements? But being together in it helps a lot. Since we’re both taking on the job, we can help each other and move in as a team.

The same counts for the streets. Together we face the challenge of finding out where to buy your groceries, how to talk to locals and get around in general.

So yes, the excitement is certainly bigger than my worries, stress or anxiety.

So where is this leading us?

So back to the original question, is there something I can tell my readers?

Yes, there is.

We had been offered this year a long-term contract but denied it since settling down in one place wasn’t an option for us. Just yet. But we agreed to come back to the same company we are working for right now.

Next year.

Working as skydiving instructors in Germany for the seasons means we have a set job for the upcoming summer. From April until October 2024. That’s about as far in advance as we have ever planned.

Now, making this decision meant we were left with just under five months to fill. A tricky one as most positions are looking for employees for a year or at least for a season. Six to seven months.

After sending out an endless list of job applications from as early as May this year, we still didn’t have a place to be for the German winter when September came around.

There were a few options. Not all of them confirmed but they were there.

• Thailand
• New Zealand
• Kuwait
• Namibia

While Namibia is always on the back burner for us, currently there isn’t enough work at our home dropzone to employ two more full-time instructors meaning we wouldn’t earn enough over the months being there.

In Thailand, we have been twice before, know the company, how to get a flat, transportation and most importantly do know how cheap it is to live down there. But similar to Namibia, after Covid, tourism still hasn’t fully recovered and our work hours could vary a lot leaving us with an unknown income each month.

Kuwait? Didn’t get back to us until two days ago. This would have been a completely new land. And a new culture. Certainly a new adventure.

To work and live in New Zealand has been my dream for some time already applying each year again and again in hopes for an offer. However, two companies came back to us in May saying they are interested in employing us but for at least a full year.

Yeah, that was too long of a commitment for us as they didn’t include a skydiving school meaning we’d only be doing tandem jumps ignoring our second side of skills training students which is the part that keeps up the fun in our job. For us, at least.

And the winner is…

We were in contact with our former colleagues in Thailand and were just about to book the flights when we received the email.

They want us. For our terms. And times.

I was over the moon.

David was rather down to Earth and realistic.

• The flight would cost us more than double than the one to any of the other destinations.
• Living costs are higher than in Germany.
• We would need to convert our skydiving licenses to their local ones spending a lot more money out front.
• We need to get another flight medical as they don’t accept ours from Namibia (as skydiving instructors we need a similar medical as pilots).
• We would be working hard the season with very little off-time.
• We would be lucky if we break even after the season. Not talking about saving any money for the future.
• We still don’t know if David would get a working visa.

“But if this is what you want to do then let’s go”, he said.

I guess they call it love.

The next steps were soon done. Signed the contract. Applied for the visa and within a matter of days, of course first mine, then a few days later his working visa came through too and we spent a fortune booking those flight tickets to get down there.

New Zealand, here we come!

This was my prompt response to Dennett’s challenge of sharing secrets. I was putting it off for long as I wasn’t sure what to write about. My mom anyway says I share too much out here. But it’s my life what I write about and share. I don’t talk about my sister ever, as she doesn’t want it. I don’t share photos, except for my own. So most things I can share, you know already.

Except for, where we’d be in two months from now.

The countdown is on.

38 days until we fly!

Other participants and their prompt responses:

Dennett with “How I Got Swifted” and “Family Silence”

LiveRunGrow with “A Chocolate Cake”

chel writes with “I’m probably the worst person in the world”

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