That’s what makes it Berlin
I came to Berlin 2 years ago, with a suitcase full of clothes, and a bag with my winter coat, as I could not cram it in anymore. If I wanted to be dramatic I would say that I brought my whole life with me, but that would be a lie. It was just clothes. All the things that remind me of the last 24 years of my life were either too big or too intangible to move in an ICE train from Frankfurt.
During the last two years the suitcase has turned into a rented apartment filled with IKEA furniture, two bikes (don’t judge me), books, paintings on the wall, and my own portrait (still don’t judge me). Yeah, I have my own portrait on the wall, and I am not ashamed to admit that (now you can judge me). With all that, living in Berlin became more than just a short stop on my journey around the world, and I am slowly starting to realize that my plan to stay here for only 2 or 3 years might have been based on some very uninformed decisions.
As opposed to all expectations, this is not because of the most commonly pronounced benefits of Berlin, like insane clubbing, good EDM, food and drinks, and international crowd. While all of this is definitely awesome, it is also easily replicable in other cities, like for example San Francisco, as I could experience earlier this summer. The thing that I love so much about Berlin, and that has influenced my life so much is people. But not just some people.
My people.
I am talking about the people I work with, the people I ride my bike with, the people that take me to cool concerts, the people I drink beer with. These are the people that matter, and these are the people that make me feel like I belong here.
First of all, let me talk about work for a bit. No, not the boring bit about my job. The more interesting bit about the work itself.
If there is one thing that Fyber, and before that SponsorPay, does extremely well, it is hiring. In the last two years I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, not only professionally, as I have not worked with too many people before, but mainly personally.
Of course, I don’t know all the 200 people. And yes, there are moments when I am asking myself “who the hell is this guy” before I find out that he has been working here for some time. But despite that, I can be sure that if I talk to that person, it will be a nice chat.
Some might call this a great company culture, I call it ‘fucking awesome’.
Outside of work the situation is a bit more difficult. You see, when you are not a student, there are not that many natural opportunities to meet people. No more classes, student parties, or school trips. Only 50-ish hours of work a week and a terrible lack of energy. It takes effort to convince yourself to go out to meetups and parties to meet new people, and after some time you even get annoyed by the same old ”Hi, I am Jan and I come from the Czech Republic. I have studied in Holland and came here 2/4/6/8 months ago. I work as a Product Manager. What about you?”
I was extremely lucky to find a couple of good friends during my first months here, with whom I still hang out almost every weekend, be it at a concert or in a weird bar which serves raddish-flavored vodka in pure ice shot glasses. Looking back at the time we met for the first time (through the Internets!!!), I am still amazed that I managed to find someone with such similar taste in life and music. Wow. Such taste. So music.
On top of that, some of my friends from my previous endeavors also came to Berlin, and of course I met a ton of other awesome people, either by accident or through said friends, which makes the whole mix even better. Throw in an ex-colleague who (already when we were working together) turned from a “colleague I knew the most” into a great friend during one night in Rosi’s, and there is not much more I could ask for.
I fucking love my friends.
With all that, I am starting to discern one thing. Berlin is an awesome city if you have someone to share it with. If you are alone, it can be terribly dark, grey, and unpleasant. As I am getting older, I am realizing that finding awesome friends is really hard. You cannot buy them on eBay. You cannot steal them from other people. You have to find them and earn them. And because of that, I cannot get rid of a scary thought. If I decide to move to a different city some day, what if all the awesome people are already taken?
