Half a decade

I started studying at a British boarding school before my 16th birthday, so it will be 5 years in September. That is a considerable chunk of my life. Over the nearly half-a-decade, I have learned not only skills related to the games development industry, but also a few important trivial aspects; like things related to 'self-sufficiency', which I would like to reflect on in this post.

Missing home and the Czech Republic in general comes often for me. At first I didn't know how to deal with it, but over time I came up with a small ritual that would never fail in alleviating any homesickness; Slow down, sit and put on a classic by Mr. Svěrák over proper Czech food. And I can’t stress how important the last part is. I had no idea that it was possible to cook something remotely comparable to my mom's food here, but ever since I found out how many Eastern European convenience stores we have here, getting rid of the occasional blues tied to missing home became much easier. I found such treasures as a real Czech dumpling or a potato salad (or, well, rather its Polish imitation, with corn instead of apple, an incomprehensible swap). This week in Tesco I even found frozen mushrooms from Slovakia, Polish butter and cream. The mushroom sauce I made out of those ingredients, which tasted like the bolete mushrooms we collect with my family in the summer, rushed in more endorphins than an hour in the gym.

Exercising and overall taking better care of myself is also a thing I only really learned here. In the Czech Republic, I rarely enjoyed the monotonous PE lessons, but now I am eternally grateful for every day in which I find time for badminton, yoga, running or my favourite, the Stairmaster - with a good podcast playing in my ears, it’s all much easier.

Now that I mention podcasts, I would like to highlight one that has changed my life for the better in many ways and to which I attribute great credit in helping me develop more self-sufficiency - 'Joe Rogan Experience', hosted by an American comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan, is a platform which constantly challenged my thinking and helped me discover more things about both today’s and past world than any formal education ever did, and thanks to which I know the work of a renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson, to whose book "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote To Chaos" I come back every time I go through a rough patch in life (and when I have some time to spare).

Finding time and balancing activities has been, and sometimes still is, a difficult task to tackle. But what I discovered helps me enormously, is planning in extreme detail. Exact time for a wake-up alarm, ten more minutes for additional waking-up (I don't trust people with less than two alarms set), five minutes for brushing teeth, ten for breakfast... Scheduling even the simplest tasks is sometimes the difference between a day full of chaos and a day full of productivity.

All of the above are just a few of the many positives the almost five years abroad have given me and for which I am grateful on a daily. Thanks to those, I feel much better prepared for the uncertain future awaiting me immediately after my approaching graduation, and I will certainly look back at them for many more times to come.