As you read this, I’ll be a third of the way into the Cordillera Huayhuash circuit in the Peruvian Andes, hopefully well acclimatized and conquering the mountains. However, because I value you so much, I’ve left you with a piece of writing that, I hope, will inspire you to live your best life.

September 15th 2023

Two years ago on this day, I was enjoying Zagreb’s city center for the last few hours before returning back home. This was my first solo trip, and it had truly been transformative. I formed strong memories with amazing people, overcame a tonne of fears and learnt that I love travel and story telling.

Most importantly though, I rediscovered a side of me that had been buried for so long: a deeply grateful, happy and peaceful one.

On this last day, even the air was magical. The streets, markets, and cafes were vibrant. The weather was perfect, with a bright sun smiling on us and the gentle whisper of the wind keeping us angenehm – that untranslatable German feeling of comfort, ease and enjoyment. People were singing in the streets, and I felt like even the bricks were exuding happiness. I spent much of the morning thinking about the people I care about, and what I find inspiring about them.

You see, over time I’ve gone from being afraid of the successes and joys of others, to someone who genuinely cherishes them. People are inspiring, because they find their limits and push past them. They overcome challenges that may look trivial to the outside eye, but an impossibility from their own personal standpoint. You can truly learn from anyone when you pay close attention to them.

This side of me exists in tension with the grim reality of the world. I recognize that for the worst things that I’m aware of, there are worse things still. Life is hard from the moment of birth, and it only gets harder with age. And worse yet, is that life is unfair: for the darkest moments of your life, there are those more wretched, and for the brightest ones, there are those with a shinier spoon.

Life exists at the balance of its gifts and curses.

It is a curse of life, that even if you replicated the exact process of making your favorite sourdough from your local bakery – down to the milligram of every ingredient, and to the smallest fraction of temperature and humidity with a Brian Johnson level of freakish control – you couldn’t re-create its flavor, for the bacteria indigenous to the baker’s hands uniquely affect it. But, it is a gift of life that the bread that you bake has a flavor unique to you.

Humanity, no matter how utopian we try to make it, is as gray as life. We’ve always been the same, and we will always be the same. The only difference between us and our ancestors is that we have toilet paper to wipe our asses – and nukes to wipe each other out.

Perhaps the reason why I can cope with our bitter imperfections is because each of us can do our best to authentically express ourselves. And what more can we do than our best?

I leave you with a Khayyam-inspired quatrain to hold onto:

Life’s complicated,

And we complicate it.

Why don’t we just stop.

And make the most of it?

Because in the end, life is two days.

So make the most of it.