“You stood up to providence, never betrayed it, your plan of happiness.” Another quote from Herbert Grönemeyer from the sad and beautiful song “Der Weg”.

I am a fan of the podcast “Betreutes Fühlen” with Atze Schröder and Leon Windscheid. An episode I recently listened to is called: “How do you stay true to yourself?” In the process, I realized with a certain satisfaction that I have remained true to myself in many things in the course of my life.

As a young teenager with little self-confidence, I was in contact with very different people my age. In the morning I went to high school in Mülheim and in the afternoon I met my clique from Kalk, on the playground or in the youth center. These were exclusively elementary or even auxiliary students, institutions that still existed at that time. I didn’t feel like something better, I was rather proud that these guys accepted me in their community. I also played in three sports clubs at the same time, football, basketball and table tennis, and again met very different boys. Very rarely did I get into a fight with someone, which was probably mainly due to the fact that I was very quiet and hardly had an opinion of my own. I liked girls too, I think she liked me too. But I had a hard time with them for a long time because of my shyness.

Later in my professional life, I had jobs in six different companies, and I also worked as a freelancer for two years each in Stuttgart and Hamburg, so I got to know a lot of people even in this long phase of my life. I am still in contact with many of them today, and close friendships have developed with some of them that still exist today.

Today, it’s normal for me to deal with different people all the time. I’ve played football for a long time, I’m a big fan of 1.FC Cologne, I’ve even been a member for two weeks, I sing in the choir and play skat and chess, even if only online at the moment. But there is also an exchange via chat. I spend a lot of time with my voluntary work for pbi, mostly with the members of the co-group or the full-time staff in the office in Hamburg.

The list does not claim to be complete. But there is a clear development, my interaction with people has changed. I have shed my shyness over time and feel comfortable in the circle of people. I approach strangers, there is often a spontaneous intensive conversation, more than just small talk.I usually recognize quite quickly whether a person has a positive or negative effect on me. In the second case, I quickly withdraw. For example, I soon notice if someone is only talking about themselves and is not interested in me. Such people don’t interest ME either!

Consequently, I have met a lot of valuable and positive-thinking people in life. There are far more of them than others that I stay away from. My conclusion is: I like the people and would like to get to know as many as possible. Because every person inspires me in some way.