My current playlist: Supersweet 25

Here's my summer playlist 2016 for the beginning of my 25th year on Earth:

It Could Be You - Alexz Johnson 

Me Out Of Me - Alexz Johnson   
Can't Take It - The All-American Rejects
Change Your Mind - The All-American Rejects
Dirty Little Secret - The All-American Rejects 
Gives You Hell - The All-American Rejects 
I Wanna - The All-American Rejects 
Move Along - All American Rejects 
Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
Top of the World - All American Rejects 
11:11 Pm - The All-American Rejects
The Breakup Song - American Hi-Fi 
The Everlasting Fall - American Hi-Fi   
The Geeks Get The Girls - American Hi-Fi  
Separation Anxiety - American Hi-Fi   
Something Real - American Hi-Fi    
Where Did We Go Wrong - American Hi-Fi    
In Another Life - Ashlee Simpson
Everytime I Look for You - Blink 182 
First Date - Blink 182   
I Miss You - Candy Hearts  
All The Ways You Let Me Down - Candy Hearts
Michigan - Candy Hearts  
Coffee With My Friends - Candy Hearts
Fool's Gold - Candy Hearts   
Brooklyn Bridge - Candy Hearts   
Wanna be your Girl - Die Happy  
The A Team - Ed Sheeran  
Drunk - Ed Sheeran 
Lego House - Ed Sheeran   
Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran   
Fall Apart - Every Avenue   
For Always, Forever - Every Avenue  

I Forgive You - Every Avenue  
No One But You - Every Avenue
Only Place I Call Home - Every Avenue 
Picture Perfect - Every Avenue    
Someday, Somehow - Every Avenue 
Tell Me I'm a Wreck - Every Avenue   
There Tonight - Every Avenue   
Whatever Happened to You - Every Avenue 
Grand theft Autumn - Fall Out Boy  
Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of - Fall out Boy
Off To The Races - Lana Del Rey
Video Games - Lana Del Rey
Diet Mountain Dew - Lana Del Rey  
National Anthem - Lana Del Rey 
Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey   
Tennis Court - Lorde    
Royals - Lorde 
Team - Lorde   
About A Girl - Nirvana   
Come As You Are - Nirvana  
Lake of Fire - Nirvana
The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage - Panic! At The Disco
Camisado - Panic! At The Disco 

But It's Better if You Do - Panic! At The Disco 
I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At The Disco 
There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet - Panic! At The Disco
Fucked Up World - The Pretty Reckless  

Skyscraper - Streetlight Manifesto 
City Pavement - The Subways 
I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say - The Subways  
Lostboy - The Subways    
Mary - The Subways  
Obsession - The Subways  
Oh Yeah - The Subways   
Rock & Roll Queen - The Subways 
Strawberry Blonde - The Subways   
With You - The Subways   
Walking Disaster - Sum 41  
Speak Of The Devil - Sum 41  
Dear Father - Sum 41   
Best Of Me - Sum 41 
Hate (I Really Don't Like You) - Plain White T's

You and Me - Plain White T's
Friends don't let friends dial drunk - Plain White T's
So Damn Clever - Plain White T's
Write you a song -Plain White T's
Hey there Delilah - Plain White T's
I'm like a lawyer with the way I'm always trying to get you off - Fall out Boy
Hum Hallelujah -  Fall out Boy 
Thnks fr th Mmrs - Fall out Boy 
The After (Life) of a Party - Fall out boy

Problems = challenges = the start of something amazing

There are times when it seems like every day a new problem arises and your entire life is nothing but problem solving. At the moment our apartment is being renovated, so we have to live in a little room with almost no dishes and no Wifi – which is why I can’t update this blog as often as I want to. Every day small problems come up which we have to take care of which mostly is entirely possible but also time consuming, tedious and frustrating.

And then there are still the big problems which bring shadows to our days like huge clouds in the summer sky. My boyfriend’s visa is expiring soon and it’s still not sure if he will get a position which will enable him to stay in Germany. If not, I will have to follow him to the US, which again brings even more problems: Can I find a job? Will I get a visa? Can I really throw everything here (my studies, my apartment, my friends, my family) away from one day to the other and start anew? To say it scares the shit out of me is an understatement.

But at the same time I know that we will find a way because this is what we do. There’s always a way and if you really want something, you will get it – if you make the necessary sacrifices and fight through tough times. But this is life. I you want something, you have to fight for it.

I keep thinking about a quote from The Marian movie (which is fantastic by the way) based on a book by Andy Weir. The hero Mark Watney is stranded by himself on Mars and has to find a way to survive on a planet which is deadly in so many ways. The way he makes his disastrous situation work is truly inspiring. Yes, Mark Watney is my idol (regardless of the fact that he is fictional).

At the end of the movie he tells his students:

“At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to go home.” (Mark Watney, The Martian)

This is very much the essence of life. Life will always be full of problems and you will have to solve one problem after the next in order to move forward. The trick is to not let the problems cloud your entire life. Because if you look close enough, amongst all these problems you can see moments of pure magic: hours spent with your lover watching the night sky, afternoons laughing and drinking coffee with your friends, an inspiring book, a mind blowing movie, the wind which blows though your hair when you stand on a bridge in your home town, bright flowers, bonfires, hikes through the forest, hot chocolate with marshmallows, a beautiful dream. Those are the moments we are living for.

Problems are also challenges. They are a chance to grow and to fight through the storm in order to come out of it as a stronger version of yourself. Problems ask for new ways of thinking, for creative solutions and for change. And yes, change is terrifying, but it can also be the start of something amazing.

The jobs I've held and lost so far

I've had quite a few interesting/weird jobs in my life so far. So, I was inspired by a post by Cole Nemeth to tell you about my adventurous path in the working world.

As my first job as a teenager I was museum watchman (or is it watchwoman?) for a small local museum in my city. It was mainly a museum of local history with changing displays of art by local artists. Basically I just sat there the whole day. Now and then some old folks came by, I greeted them and also sold them coffee or pie and then watched them pretending to be impressed by the museum. It was a really easy job. When noone was visiting the museum, I could even do my homework or read a book.

In my first spring break from college, I landed a job with Dialog Direct. They came to my university and there was a day-long test/interview and I was so proud that I was accepted. What they do is, they stand in busy streets in cities and try to find sponsors for non profit organisations like Amesty International and the like. During the interview day, they showed us a video which made it sound so much fun. A team of six young people drive around the country, work for a good cause, always similing.

But in truth it was pretty awful. First there was a two day training program where we learned how to manipulate people. How to look them in the eye, what to say, what never to say, how to bring them to sign something without them even knowing what excactly they're signing. They even told us that people who really were a part of an NGO weren't allowed to fundraise for this organization because they truly believed in their cause and therefore where too passionate to manipulate. You have to be cold-hearted to do this. To this day I can recognize fundraisers on the street who were trained by Dialog Direct because they all use the same tricks.

After the training, we drove from Berlin to Munich. There we were a team of six and lived in a shared apartment. Every morning at 8am we left the apartment and put up our booth. The whole day we stood there and tried to covince people to become sponsors. At around 10pm we packed everyting in and went right to bed because this kind of work is really exhausting.

People hate people who try to sell them something - even, or especially, if it's for a good cause. People literally crossed the street so that we wouldn't start a conversation with them. And the stress is extreme. I opted for a payment method were you got a fixed salary each week, so that I wouldn't be under so much pressure but I still was. I think, our teamleader gets more money the more sponsors we get or something like this because people who didn't get at least two sponsors a day (which already is really hard) left one after the other. Our team was shrinking. I wasn't doing well either, so after 4 days I was told that I should quit which I did because it was honestly the worst job I ever held.

To make up the money I didn't make with Dialog Direct, the next semester I worked as a dishwasher for an Italian restaurant. Which was a shitty job as well, because all you did was wash the dishes for hours, but it was okay and at the end of the night I even got something to eat.

The next springbreak I had the greatest job ever! I was a city scout for Yelp. Yelp was expanding in Germany, so they hired me to review stores, places, bars etc. in my hometown Frankfurt. All I did was walk around my town, take pictures of places and write about them on Yelp. I must have written a review for every single place in Frankfurt. And people loved my reviews! I didn't just write how I find the store but I told funny stories of what happened to me at a certain place. To this day people send me compliments for my reviews on Yelp. I did this job for 6 weeks and it was awesome. But at some point there aren't any places left to write about.

After that I worked at an advertisment firm as an ad writer. We created homepages for companies and I wrote texts about why these companies are awesome. I also typed in reviews of customers as references. It was a pretty comfortable job though it robbed me of my faith in people (especially in the advertisement business). One of our clients was a hair removal company. So many reviews came in which stated that their hair removal technique is extremely painful, costs a lot and doesn't even properly work. But in my advertisment text it was obviously painfree and effective.

The first home working job I had was doing the online marketing for an apocalypse book by a rich Swiss author. He paid me to fill a website and Facebook page and to post in groups and literary sites how awesome his book is. He really believed that the story in his book (something about aliens) would actually come true but I'm still waiting for it to happen.

Two years ago I started working as an editor at Lifehack - an online magazine with articles full of tips and tricks in all areas: technology, health, science, relationships, spirituality, entertainment. I am still holding this job and it is therefore my longest job so far. It is a really comfortable job. I copy edit articles, I revise grammatical and spelling errors, formating errors and sometimes if the content is illogical or incomprehensive I tell the author to revise it. I enjoy that the articles are so diverse, so I learn about a lot of different topics through this job.

I also wrote a couple of articles for the local newspaper here. It's fun and this is the kind of work I want to do but the pay is awful and to be honest, I often lack article ideas.

One of the most fun jobs I had was as a movie/tv show/music tester for an airline more than a year ago. All I had to do was in parts watch the movies or tv shows or listen to the music of their inflight entertainment and then note if there are quality programs. Unfortunately I had to quit this job to start my current employment.

At the moment I am working for a publishing house. My work is really diverse. Some of my tasks include: editing books, layouting, PR, marketing, organizing events. Some things are more fun than others. I enjoy working with a lot of interesting people, authors, dancer, singers, but I don't really like calling newspapers and trying to convince them to write about our books and the like. This 1.5 year job program will end in October. My boss asked me if I wanted to continue working there, but though I like my job, I chose to quit and see what comes next for me.