Here I am and here I'll stay

Freedom can only truly be achieved by accepting life on life’s terms, and working with what is in front of you now. 

I didn't know how I am going to make it down the castle.

It was so beautiful, yet so almost impossible to believe I made it there, despite the crazy and quite blind way through the farmers field

Surrender. Poddaj sie. Ríndete.

Downhill from the castle, now trying to figure out how to make it home, while not having any bus, taxi or bike to take I was walking in the dark. The sun sat long (?) ago, and sky was showing all the stars to me. It was clear that 10 km that I needed to make back home will take me some time, unless I...

Hitch-hike in the mountains. For the first time in my life.

I didn't quite know where I was. I barely even knew which direction Jelenia Góra was. I was walking and trying to stop ANY cars. Just like they do it in the movies, lol, just stand there on the sidewalk, your thumb up, hoping that someone will stop.

I was wondering if I am doing smth wrong as, of course, no one stopped. There weren't many cars anyway, which gave me idea that I have to make it home back on my foot.

Trying to hike. What to lose?

One couple pulled over, the lady was holding a little dog on the laps.

- Jelenia Góra is the opposite way,- they told me.

Unsuccessfully trying to convince them to give me a ride wherever they were going, I continued walking. Well, at least now I knew the direction.

The phone torch and rare cars passing by served me sources of light. When they weren't, there were stars, sky and the woods. Different shades of blue.

My pink windbreaker made me visible in the headlight, but somehow, no one wanted to give me a lift.

It took half an hour until I managed to stop the second car with my tiny thumb (have you seen my thumbs?) The driver was weird. He stopped, cleared the front seat off trash, but when I for a ride to Jelenia Góra, he rode away. Not even saying a word to me.

WTF?

Surrender. Poddaj sie. Ríndete.

Two unsuccessful attempts to catch a car made me a little bit more accepting of the fact that walking alone highway in the middle of nowhere in Karkonosze is not that bad. It didn't rain, it was not that cold, I was living my dream.

I was hitchhiking.

My mom was sending me videos of her kitten in the meanwhile. I was supposed to get home and call her by this time.

Would I call my mom right now to tell her I was not sure how or when I will make it home that night?

I knew I will make it somehow.

Surrender. Poddaj sie. Ríndete.

Accept the fact that somehow your road will take time, but you eventually will finish it.

Accept the fact it's dark and cold now, but in 2 hours you can drink hot chocolate in your hotel room.

Accept your random thoughts that come and go. Or play them in your head, like a broken record. You might as well sing inside. Or talk to yourself. Just keep walking.

And then...

The moment I gave up, accepted the fact I got to shut up and walk down the highway till I reach Jelenia Gora, I caught a ride.

- Are you from Poland?

- Tak.

I lied, but at this point it didn't matter. I managed! Success! I was impossibly happy and almost not giving a damn where I needed to get off.

I knew wherever I'll end up, I will find the way.

Facing what is right in front of you, head-on, while intimidating or scary at times, gives you a feeling of peace and choice on how to handle yourself and your next steps forward.

Cross that field. Walk through those lakes. Climb that mountain. Catch the car.

Fear is the mind-killer. That night I faced many of those, until I could actually relax in my bed back in Ceplice, after a whole day of hiking finished with a screening of Dune in local cinema. (Hence all the quotes, hehe).

But if there was a day, when a sleeper must be awaken, it was it.

11:11.2021.

Too much? Maybe.

The wind is rising, we must try to live.