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| Cheia, 2004 |
In 2004, when my former boss asked me to start a new division in the agency, in a direction I knew (excuse my french) shit about it, I went back to school. It was a distance school program from UK. Because of the urgent business need for skills I entered a 12 month program (instead of 24). It was very difficult. I was working anyway 1 out of 2 weekends because of huge workload and, at the time, I was having only Runa as a kid.
Obviously I was late. So, when I had no real space left, no more than 7 days before submitting an assignment, I took my folders, my laptop and went for 5 days alone in the mountains to study and write. It was one of a kind experience. I went to Cheia, it was February, heavy snow and cold. I was the only guest in the main hotel for 4 days, they could not run the central heating only for a customer so they brought me an electric heater in the room. I was going 3 times a day to eat, the cook was coming only for me, I was eating alone, winter dressed while looking at movies on my laptop. All alone.
For 4 days I read tons of files, books and notes. I was writing like a lunatic, going out only to eat. It was blizzard outside, extremely cold and nobody in the whole resort. After that period I decided that I am much too old to learn. At least not this type of learning. Recently I played with the idea of doing of MBA but I have decided against, mainly because, with my big family and busy professional schedule, it would have meant to do this, again, on my family and personal time.
Coming back to Cheia, after the 5 days I crossed the mountains and joined my colleagues team-building in Fundatica, the highest village in Romania. There I found out that I will be never too old to learn about myself and other people and, mostly about the huge power of personal belief.
When you see those women striving to the church at -20C degrees through the blizzard, staying in the stone cold church for hearing the priest just to give each other some of the things they cooked, it is impressive. I am proud I faced the cold to take this images. I am not proud that during the same day I broke the clutch of my new 4x4 car. But that's a shameful story for some other time.
