Ten Years in Berlin

I came in Berlin at the end of May 2015, with a job set to start on June 1st. I came here officially for “at least 6 months” and somehow it has been 10 years. I was burned out when I moved to Berlin, after having voluntarily quit a job that was killing me.

It was a hard decision to leave my home country, but I had to do it to save myself and the relationship I was in and I can say that it worked. I remember telling my dad “in the worst case I will come back and I would have learned German”. Here I am still here and my German kinda sucks.

Moving here was one of the best decisions I’ve ever taken. Do I love it now? Nope. Do I know if I want to stay for another ten years? No idea. But I have to be infinitely grateful to all the people I’ve met and have made me grow.

Work wise, the first team I worked with is a special memory that I will always bring with me. A grumpy team of sysops, all Germans. I knew nothing about what they were doing, but they accepted me like one of them. It is so important to feel accepted and welcome when you start something new and I always try to keep it in mind in any situation I am in. Can’t say this is how I feel all the time, especially in Berlin. Anyways, the first twelve months with them truly shaped my learning for the next years to come, at least from the technical point of view. It’s what I wanted to do and what I needed and it happened at the right time. After roughly 3 years I changed jobs, changed other things, learned different things. It’s harder now for me to say what I will learn or what I will focus on in the next ten. It’s hard to learn at this stage of my career and it’s harder to be supported from companies. But I’m exploring things with awereness and trying to be a better person at work every day.

The same happens in my private life. I’m married now, I’m (somehow) a father and have to think about the future of my family. If you met me ten years ago and you meet me now, one thing that you will notice is that.. I’m quite a different person. Life changed me, both in good ways and bad ways. I’m aware of this.

I changed a lot. But what I have in common with myself ten years ago is that from the 1st of June I will be working in Berlin. Surely for a few months, then I’ll see. Maybe I get actually good at German or I stay another 10 years or I settle for good. But today I don’t think about the future, today I just celebrate this milestone.