Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all

by Arnoldo Cota (Mexico)

A leap into the unknown Germany

Lying on a bed, gaze lost somewhere on the ceiling and listening to the harmonious crashing of drops against the window, there was I in an eight-bed smelly bedroom on a cheap hostel in Hamburg. It was a Tuesday morning and my shy Philippine host made of my knowledge that on Saturday I needed to checkout because the place was booked out for the whole weekend. I knew that wasn’t the real reason; it was already my second month there, I’m talking about end of February, and for the previous three weeks I paid only half the price, considering one day I woke up with bed bugs bites, so I realized he was just getting rid of my on a polite way. Hamburg isn’t the best place to visit the first months of the year, you get chilled to the bone, and is pretty much always rainy and foggy. Due to the weather and that things were not going how I expected I got depressed; two months trying to find a job unsuccessfully, two months living in a place dirtier than a pigpen, two months of accomplishing nothing for what I went there for. I was supposed to be already working and learning german. So Saturday finally came, about noon I slowly walked to the counter with my baggage ready to do the checkout, and emotionless I said to my host while I handed over him the door key, if I could leave my baggage there while I look for a place to stay, he replied that it was ok, I mean he was aware of my situation we had been practically roommates for the last two months. Now I was jobless, broke and without a place to crash in, what a movie cliché I thought. I left the hostel and walked into the subway, jumped inside the wagon, destination unknown, I sat and begun watching through the window like Rachel Watson in The girl on the train, getting angry with myself for have thought that it was going to be easy, while I was watching the clouds over the horizon passing by. I step out in Gänsemarkt an old square in downtown that I always liked and has a starbucks. I only had fifty euros left in my pocket, but at that precise moment I didn't care about anything, so I bought a six-euro coffee and sat in the middle of the square in front of Ephraim Lessing monument. Coffee on hand I began to think about my options, I wasn’t going to call my parents for more money, that was a promise I had made to myself, so I called the only friend I did during that time in the hostel, it was the most promising option; I called him and he was in Berlin, he told me “you should go to “X” hostel, it’s more expensive but at least it’s cleaner”. I hung up and stared at the sky while drinking my cafe and said to God “This is what you wanted? You wanted to see me fail? I am not going to give you that pleasure, I’ll pay for two days in the new hostel and sleep like I deserve to, if after that I have to sleep under a bridge it doesn’t matter, I won’t fall apart and you are not defeating me, I’ll get out of this situation one way or another” I finished my coffee and went to the new hostel, it was way better than the old one but twice more expensive, I paid for two nights it was forty-two euros, so I ended up with two euros, but a new attitude against adversity. I went to pick my baggage to the old hostel and the owner opened the door and the first thing he said was “Are you still looking for job?” and I incredulous said yes, then he replies, “I fired the cleaning lady, are you interested?” Enough said, that day started a new chapter in my life, and I learned that before you can succeed you need to struggle against adversity, fight your battles, as the old saying goes, “God tightens the noose but doesn’t choke you”