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Published: February 7th 2010
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Winter on the Schwäbische Alb I
... mountain area about one hour from where we live. You haven’t read from me for quite a long time. I’m sorry. So many things happened, I just didn’t have time to write something. But finally, I managed to at least give you a quick update.
By the end of September, I made a decision that I had been thinking about for nine months. I decided to give up hanggliding. It almost broke my heart, I think it is the most painful decision in made in my whole life as I love flying so much. But the thing is that this accident was the fourth within only two years. The other three ones were not as bad, of course. Once a broken nose and a bent back, once a wound in my face that needed to be suturated, and once a big, fat, swollen knee. But the pattern behind all these accidents is that I'm just too ambitious. I flew a glider that I was definitely not ready for yet. It was pretty hard to land, but I didn’t realize that at the time I flew it. I should have waited, should have flown my single surface glider for a longer time, just as a friend of mine had recommended.
Winter on the Schwäbische Alb II
Mum and I went for a beautiful walk one Sunday afternoon But I didn’t. Then, I started aerotowing, which, as I reckon now, should not be done by inexperienced pilots because it requires being very familiar with how your glider reacts so that you can make the necessary adjustments when being towed up. In towing, everything just goes so fast that you don’t have much time to think about what you’re doing. But in spite of that, I wanted to learn it as quick as possible.
After each accident, I was a lot more careful. But as soon as everything went well, I started getting too keen again. And did things again that I simply wasn't ready for. I've had three chances to learn my lesson, but I didn't. That fourth accident in January was the last warning for me. I spent seven weeks in a wheelchair, knowing that I would walk again. But I couldn't spend my whole life in it. I know that there are a lot of pilots who have flown safely all their life. So I'm not saying that hanggliding itself is unsafe. It is just me who can't do it safely. The combination Katha and hanggliding doesn’t seem to be a good one. I was
doing well, and I flew cross country only one year after my first flight. At the Corryong Cup, I didn’t bomb out one single day, and I ended up being tenth, even though there were pilots that were far more experienced than me. But still, I wanted more. I wanted to qualify for the German Women’s National Team. Only two years after passing my license. How crazy can a person be???
The problem was not that I didn’t see what I was doing. Whenever I did something that was too challenging for me, everything within me was screaming “Don’t!”, but I just didn’t listen. I thought “Don’t be a wimp, all the others are doing this, too.”. The only thing was that all the others were usually pilots that had been flying for ten years and more. No, I just didn’t learn my lesson, although I got more than enough warnings. So I considered this one the last one. Especially after breaking my leg. I had actually already decided to get back into hanggliding when that second accident happened. So I wondered what that wanted to tell me. I decided that it wanted to tell me to give up
Winter on the Schwäbische Alb IV
... with sun and snow - awesome! the sport I loved so much.
At the same time, I made another decision. I hadn’t started my own business just for the sake of it. I had done it because it enabled me to be flexible and independent so that I could work anytime from anywhere and build my life around flying. I did miss teamwork, a mentor and a career plan, a price that I paid for being independent. While I still needed the independence for hanggliding, that was okay. But without hanggliding being the content of my life, I just wanted to be in a team again, with a mentor looking after me, with a career plan and all that. Another thing that I had been thinking of for months, if not years, was the idea of writing a doctoral dissertation. So I decided that I wanted to be employed by a company again. And there was one that I knew would just be perfect for me. A company in Hamburg that I had known for six years. I had started as an intern, then worked for them as a freelancer. One and a half years ago, we had started a project together again, and I
Emely the Christmas Mouse
That bread was sold when I went to visit my friend Christiane in Duisburg on weekend. We bought one, but we never ate it, or, hm, her? had enjoyed the cooperation a lot.
I simply asked them whether they wanted to employ me. And they did not only say yes, but they made a great offer - I can work for them on interesting projects around the field of online assessments, and they will support me writing my doctoral dissertation. I felt like in paradise. Interesting projects were awaiting me, a great team, and a great city, my favourite one in Germany. It is very far from my beloved mountains, but that’s okay.
So my last three months of 2009 were very, very busy. I needed to find an apartment in Hamburg (700 km from Stuttgart, a logistic challenge!), there was a lot of paperwork that I had to do (not because of the company, but because of insurance stuff and all that), there was a lot of work that I needed to finish before Christmas, there were three weekends of “Train the Trainer” in Cologne, there was a lecture I held at Duisburg University, and there was my rehabilitation programme that I had to finish before coming to Hamburg, too. So I ended up going to that rehab place between three and five times
Phantasialand I
My friend Christiane all happy riding a children's carousel. Well, so was I per week. Of course, after finding an apartment, I had to move to Hamburg. Believe me, I was exhausted when Christmas finally arrived and I had managed to prepare everything. Of course, there were also some nice days within these stressful weeks. I passed a great weekend with my friend Christiane, and we went to Phantasialand, a leisure park not far from Cologne, like every year around Christmas. I met my schoolmates from primary school and our two teachers. Hadn’t seen them for twenty years. I met some of my schoolmates that I finished school with. I spent Christmas with my family. And after Christmas, I attended the
European Buddhist Youth Festival.
On the 6th of January, I started my new job here in Hamburg. I will write a lot more about my new life here soon. For now, let me just tell you that I’m all happy. I love my job, I look forward to going to the office every day. Projects are diversified and exciting, the team is just fantastic. I have a great new apartment in which I feel pretty much at home already. I found a nice gym not far from home that I go to quite often
Phantasialand II
Christiane flies! because I still need to work on my muscles and endurance. My mum and my friend Marie have already come to stay here with me for a weekend. That was great. I’m just happy to be healthy, to have a great family and great friends, and to have found a job and company that I like so much.
So, that’s the news from me. I’ll try not to let you wait so long until writing my next story. I hope you are all well and wish you a healthy, successful and happy year 2010.
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winDfried
non-member comment
good to hear from U !
Dear Katha, Thank You for Your sound writeup on a tough decision ! Wisdom often comes afterwards. Others might read it and learn from You. Cordially, W.