Luck is not a matter of luck

Or is it? Anyone who follows our blog knows that the topic of happiness is particularly close to my heart. I firmly believe that with the right attitude and a positive outlook on things, you can give happiness a boost. But there is not only happiness, but also bad luck in life from time to time. Not every stroke of fate, not every accident can be undone with a positive attitude. Especially as a handicapped person, I think I can estimate this. In my case it was a mishap, an accident. In insurance jargon, one also speaks of "PAUKE": An accident is an PSuddenly from außen unvoluntarily on the Kbody eing event. For me, this accident means that I am still blind in my left eye forty years later. 

Klar, einäugig ist besser als blind. Mit einem gewissen Sarkasmus ist das ganz gut ertragbar. Schließlich ist der „Einäugige unter den Blinden König“ – Erasmus. Und mein Lieblingswitz dazu: Sagt der Taube zum Blinden: Ich kann keine Behindertenwitze mehr hören. Antwortet der Blinde: Das sehe ich genauso. 

Either way, there are strokes of fate in life under which one breaks and the other strengthens. When by chance I came across IsasWomo blog and read her story, I just had to ask Isa to share her story with us. This she has done. So I'll turn the floor over to Isa:

When a little old camper turns your whole life upside down....

I am Isa and until I was 27 years old I had nothing to do with camping. My parents were with us children two or even three times a year on vacation, but we were always the typical package travelers.

My only experience as a camper, was in childhood, in an insanely cold, rainy, clammy tent night in the garden of the Youth Recreation Center Dortmund.

And yet he was already ALWAYS da, der Traum von einem eigenen kleinen Wohnmobil. Das Bild, wie ich zwischen den Dünen eines Strandes sitze, neben mir liegt ein großer, weißer Hund und im Hintergrund steht ein kleines, altes Wohnmobil mit einer leuchtend roten Markise (ganz wichtig 🙂 ) hat sich eingebrannt.

Why, for as long as I can remember, I have had this exact image in my head, I can't tell you...I just know, it's been right there all along! At the same time, I didn't know a big white dog, let alone what it was like to be on the road in a motor home.

For a long time it also looked as if the thought would remain a dream, because my reality was another... a completely different one.

During a training camp in Spain, I got my first slipped disc at the age of 16. Why and why and whether all that was to follow was related to competitive sports, no doctor has been able to say so far.

But after the first incident, 22 more followed in the next 6 years, in the mix with 12 surgeries. But unfortunately that was not all. After large parts of my spine were stiffened and about 6 months after my state examination as a physiotherapist, I became seriously ill again.

This time, however, my back was not to blame.

Bad luck, coupled with the idea that I should not be allowed to miss work under any circumstances due to my probationary period, ultimately ensured that I was in an "artificial coma" for 13 weeks and spent the following two years sitting in a wheelchair for most of that time in some rehab clinic or other.

At that time, I was in such bad shape that four different assessments concluded, no new job, no retraining, no other studies, the only thing left was permanent readiness.

My professional future had thus also finished, Abi, study, applications... everything for the tonne!

Luckily I had my dog Milla and my family!

My long-term relationship came to an end during my time in the wheelchair, but my family was always by my side. My mother in particular, thanks to special leave and relatives' rooms, spent part of the day and night at my bedside and I think without my dog, I would never have made the effort to get out of my own front door.

About 2.5 years later, I started to feel better.

I was able to walk halfway again and took new courage... somehow it would go on, even if there really is something nicer than knowing at the age of 27 that as an early retiree you will never earn money as an employee again. That feeling of being "not needed" all your life is anything but "fun". Not to mention that I lacked the money to experience all that free time after having fallen.

A large burst vessel was to blame. In November she went to the doctor for a check-up... everything was fine! Some things will never be understood.

My mother was always someone who said, once I can retire, then I want to travel, then I want to learn about the "Senior University" again, take a watercolor painting course ... then I want this, then I will that.

Too Late!

All that has happened in these years has led me to say I have to change my life, it can't go on like this and now my health is reasonably good... if not now, when?

So I remembered the dream of the little old camper.

A year and a good 100 used vehicles later, I was able to set out on my very first RV tour.

3 Tage Möhnesee, keine 100 Kilometer von zuhause entfernt und gespickt mit 327 Anfängerfehlern, aber für mich war es der Start zu einem ganz großen Abenteuer. 🙂

Of course, my whole family was far less convinced of my travel plans than I was, everyone was very worried, the "sick girl can't travel alone like that".

Hmmmm... yes!

In addition, there was about 7-8 years ago almost no German-language information on the net, which was about the journey alone in the camper. On the subject of backpacking, etc. there was plenty, but alone "camping" including motorhome as a woman ... there was nothing!

So at some point one thing led to another...

Even though I understood all their worries, the daily phone calls with family and friends still got on my nerves. Sometimes my cell phone rang for 3-4 hours without interruption, because everyone wanted to hear if I was doing well.

Furthermore, as I said, there was no info from other solo campers on the net, so I killed two birds with one stone by starting my own blog.

Friends and family could regularly track that I was doing well and other people with the same dream, could get information.

At first, I started blogging through a very simple, free portal, but it stopped serving me after about a year.

So it was clear to me that I would not continue writing. Because after a year, the biggest worries on the part of family and friends were gone.

Oben auf war es so, dass mir meine Schulzeit nicht unbedingt viel Freude am Schreiben gelassen hat. Laut meines Deutschlehrers bin ich wahnsinnig phantasielos, meine Ausdrucksweise ist mal gerade so ausreichend und ok, dass meine Rechtschreibung Züge von Legasthenie zeigt, ist wahrscheinlich wirklich wahr.  Nicht gerade die beste Grundlage für einen eigenen Blog! 🙂

But then I received more and more messages from complete strangers who wanted to know how they could continue to follow me. At some point, I told a good friend about these messages, who asked as if shot out of a pistol, "And why don't you go about it the right way? You have time and nothing to lose, right?!"

But I knew NOTHING AT ALL about the operation of its own homepage, but also had by far not the money to hire any expensive agency.

So for the next few weeks and months I spent almost day and night on the net looking for all the info I needed to start my own blog.

A good 4 months later IsasWomo was launched!

What followed was a mix of a lot of work and luck!

I'll be honest, since IsasWomo came into existence, there hasn't been a day that I haven't spent on the net in some way "professionally". According to the weekly work-online schedule, my daily working time on the net averages 9.5 hours. But this includes, for example, writing mails or spending time on a social platform. However... it's an average time for all days of the week, so also all holidays, Saturdays, Sundays or, or.

Why am I writing this so precisely. I do not want to prove how "hardworking" I am... nonsense, I am self-employed and I have to watch alone that the job works! I just want to show, it is quite possible to earn money as a "camping blogger" or "camping writer"... but that does not work with a little "hobby blogging" on the side.

Apart from that, I was lucky!

I have served with the topic of solo travel from the beginning a division that was almost empty and relatively quickly, relatively good readership. So it happened that the first small cooperation requests reached me after a few months and after a good 1.5 years I could actually make myself independent as "Campingbloggerin".

In the meantime I have been self-employed for almost 4 years.

I write for my blog, speak podcasts, but also write a lot for magazines, journals and other sites or help businesses with their social media profiles.

When I think of all that has happened in the last 10 years, it's all PURE INSANITY!!!!

Why am I writing all this to you?

I hope my "journey" proves to each of you, in this day and age, anything is possible! Since even the purchase of a small, old motorhome can lead to experience a whole new professional future.

Wie lange das alles so funktioniert… wer weiß das schon? Aktuell geht es mir dank der Medikamente weitestgehend gut, ich genieße jeden Tag den ich „on Tour“ gehen kann, ich freue mich über jeden neuen Auftrag und auch wenn es vielleicht total unsympathisch klingt, aber ich bin echt stolz, dass mein Leben aktuell ist, wie es ist! (Abgesehen von Corona!!!)

Oh and because I wrote so little about the actual camping... Sweden!

I spent a complete summer, or almost 5 months, in Sweden some time ago and it was a dreamy time!

I found the north again much nicer than the south, because in the north Sweden is still as I have always imagined the country. Villages like Michel from Lönneberger and huge lakes that my dog girl and I had to ourselves.

If you feel like camping tips, elaborated tours, great addresses and a look behind the scenes of the industry, then you are of course welcome to look around on IsasWomo or IsasWomo in the social media.

So... don't get discouraged and live your passion now... not later! You'll see, sometimes a small passion brings out a whole new, great talent.

We know all about yesterday, we all feel the now... but no one....no one, no one in this big wide world knows tomorrow!

In diesem Sinne… bleibt gesund 😉

Your Isa

Isa writes that she was lucky. How do you see that? In any case, my definition of luck is supplemented by another point. Luck is getting up again and again. Especially where others remain seated. Thank you Isa!