#Livingmydream

By Pamela Gerstmann

My name is Pam and I'm living my dream! But... it wasn't always that way. My background is German and I'm an 80's girl. I grew up in East Berlin before moving to Munich, Germany in 1997.

I actually started my career in 1999 in Munich in tourism. Over the years I worked across many departments and fields, as a sales rep and managing client service teams until I thought I had found my niche in flight management.

However, there was still a nagging feeling inside me that I wanted something more and, in 2006 I decided to travel the world for a year. I simply fell in love with Australia. My dream became to move here, however it wasn't to be an easy journey. I tried for many years and even commenced studying accounting as I have always been great with numbers. Pursuing my goal cost me 10 years of my life, including my partner, but eventually my dream came true, in April 2013 I boarded the flight that changed my life!

I arrived in Melbourne and was doing what I always wanted to do - continuing my studies in accounting and more importantly working in a great business using my skills and knowledge. I know now that I truly have found my passion.

I still love to travel, and in my spare time enjoy dancing and spending time with friends. Most importantly... I make every day count!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pamela Gerstmann
• Release date: Apr 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310565090

Pamela Gerstmann

I'm living my dream! But... it wasn't always that way. I actually started my career in 1999 in Munich, Germany in tourism. Over the years I worked across many departments and fields, as a sales rep and managing client service teams until I thought I had found my niche in flight management.However, there was still a nagging feeling inside me that I wanted something more and, in 2006 I decided to travel the world for a year. I simply fell in love with Australia. My dream became to move here, however it wasn't to be an easy journey. I tried for many years and even commenced studying accounting as I have always been great with numbers. Pursuing my goal cost me 10 years of my life, including my partner, but eventually my dream came true, in April 2013 I boarded the flight that changed my life!I arrived in Melbourne and am now doing what I always wanted to do - continuing my studies in accounting and more importantly working with Wealth Enhancers using my skills and knowledge. I know now that I truly have found my passion.I still love to travel, and in my spare time enjoy dancing and spending time with friends. Most importantly... I make every day count!

Book preview

#LIVINGMYDREAM

#DESERVEIT

How I achieved the toughest goal of my life and am now living my dream

Pamela Gerstmann

Copyright © Pamela Gerstmann 2015

Website: www.deserveit.click

Published in Germany by Pamela Gerstmann

First published in Germany 2015

Distributed by Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover design, typesetting: fantabanner

Cover photography by Pamela Gerstmann

Cover layout by fantabanner

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

Disclaimer

All care has been taken in the preparation of the information herein, but no responsibility can be accepted by the publisher or author for any damages resulting from the misinterpretation of this work. All contact details given in this book were current at the time of publication, but are subject to change.

The advice given in this book is based on the experience of the individuals. Professionals should be consulted for individual problems. The author and publisher shall not be responsible for any person with regard to any loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by the information in this book.

I would like to thank Sarah for helping me with this book and coaching me on my writing skills, as well as my amazing friend Mel who encouraged me to write it. I would also like to thank Annick, who is the most important person in my life, along with my family and friends who have supported me so much along my journey. Most importantly, I would like to thank my beloved stepmom that I miss so much.

Table of Contents

Why this book…

Where it all began…

Leaving Berlin

Starting to settle down

When we got itchy feet

The summer of our dreams

Travelling the world

Coming home?

Making the hardest decision of my life

This isn’t working

It is finally happening…

The big move

Australia

Why this book…

I recently had to do an exercise that was quite hard to accomplish at first but then became easier and easier and I felt great about my personal achievement. This exercise is a so-called "painted picture’. The result of a painted picture is how you picture yourself or your business in the future.

I had to picture myself in three years’ time from a personal and professional point of view. Sounds easy for some and sounds hard for others. I personally struggled because I never thought about that. Or did I? When I started writing down a few things that I would want myself to do, I realised I had done a similar thing before without noticing it.

This book is based on all my experiences, my feelings, my wins, my losses and battles in life that led to #livingmydream and creating that painted picture for myself in three years.

Part of that painted picture I came up with is this book. I didn’t really think of writing a book, but quite a few people I met along my life journey said I should write it down for others to read. They told me that my stories could be inspiring for others or help them to make their own dreams come true.

I personally never thought that I could inspire someone by just being me, and when a really good friend of mine told me that she and her husband think I’m an inspiration for them I was surprised. They are an absolute power couple and have achieved so much in their lives that I was looking up to them and still am. You will meet them on my journey. Their names are Sarah and Finn, and they are among the many amazing people I surround myself with.

After people told me to write down how I got to where I am now and how I achieved it, I decided I would give it a go. I hope this book will be an inspiration, a guide or just a good read for you. If it is either one of them then I have I achieved my goal.

I’m just a normal person telling stories of my life. I don’t want it to be boring and I don’t want it to be an autobiography. I’m way too young to write my autobiography, but I think some of the stories I’m going to tell in this book show why I’ve become who I am today, who I was in the past, and what happened that changed my life.

I definitely don’t want anyone to use this book as a solution finder or think it could change their lives, but if it does help you to make a decision — even if it is a tiny one — that is all I can hope for.

I truly believe that anything is possible and every one of us can achieve our goals and live our dreams. Always dream big and never give up — but be aware that something doesn’t come from nothing. You need to work hard to achieve your goals and live your dream. At the end of the day it lies in your own hands and it is you that needs to work hard for it! Some names in this book have been changed for privacy reasons.

I'm living my dream! But… it wasn't always that way. I actually started my career in 1999 in Munich, Germany, in tourism. Over the years had I worked across many departments and fields, as a sales rep and managing client service teams, until I thought I had found my niche in flight management.

However, there was still a nagging feeling inside me that I wanted something more and, in 2006, I decided to travel the world for a year. I simply fell in love with Australia. My dream became to move here. However it wasn't to be an easy journey. I tried for many years and even commenced studying accounting as I have always been great with numbers. Pursuing my goal cost me 10 years of my life, including my partner, but eventually my dream came true: in April 2013 I boarded the flight that changed my life!

I arrived in Melbourne and was doing what I always wanted to do: continuing my studies in accounting and, more importantly, working in a great business using my skills and knowledge. I know now that I truly have found my passion.

I still love to travel, and in my spare time enjoy dancing and spending time with friends. Most importantly… I make every day count!

So come back with me on my journey of life.

Look around you and look inside you. How many people do you think are settling? I will tell you: a hell of a lot of people. People are settling everyday into okay relationships and okay jobs and an okay life. And do you know why? Because okay is comfortable. Okay pays the bills and gives a warm bed at night and allows one to go out with a co-worker on a Friday evening to enjoy happy hour. But do you know what okay is not? Okay isn’t thrilling, it isn’t passion, it isn’t the reason you get up every day; it isn’t life-changing or unforgettable. Okay is not the reason why you go to bed late and wake up early. Okay is not the reason you risk absolutely everything you’ve got just for the smallest chance that something absolutely amazing could happen.

Unknown

Where it all began…

I was thinking about where to start with my story and what would be of interest for the reader or the people around me. I thought about different conversations I had with friends or people I met.

I realised that there is a lot in my past that not many people know much about because no one really talks about that. Not sure why or when this will start as it is part of our history. Maybe it is still too recent, or people don’t think about asking my generation — the early start of Gen Y, about their experiences.

I’m talking about divided Germany and the Wall coming down. My background as mentioned earlier is German. I was born in 1980 in East Berlin, the Russian communist side of Germany. My mum was a nurse and my dad a facility manager at the hospital where I was born. It belonged to the East-German police force and therefore had quite high security standards. It was built right next to the Wall at the border or Death Zone to West-Germany which made it even spookier.

I think I was born just at the right time to still be able to tell stories about that time. My little brother John-Paul doesn’t remember much from back then and he is only three years younger than me. I was nine when the Wall came down and he had just turned six.

The weeks before the Wall came down were very surreal. I was too young to fully understand what was going on, but I knew that something wasn’t right. Back then, we already had colour TV, but maybe only two or three channels, so we heard the news from the East and West. Every day there was the same topic… Another hundred people had fled to the West through Hungary or other ways. Days and days passed, and more and more people escaped the prison we were living in.

We lived in the northeastern suburbs of Berlin with seven other families in our part of the apartment building. They all had children about my brother’s or my age and we could hear our parents talk about it at night or when they met. One night someone knocked at our door and my friend from upstairs was outside. She was about a year older than me, or maybe a bit more. She was carrying a bird cage. She asked me if I would like to have the bird as her uncle had left and left everything behind to go to the West and the bird needed a new home. I didn’t understand why someone would do that and what was so great about the West that everyone wanted to go and even leave the poor bird behind. My parents weren’t very happy about the bird but let me have it.

I asked my parents questions and didn’t get an answer. I was watching the news with them and as the numbers rose of people that had fled I said What happens if everyone goes? Will Germany be empty soon? I didn’t understand that it was actually part of the country I was born in and lived in. I couldn’t fathom that people would divide our nation — especially not with a wall. I know the wall was part of the city and there were areas where it was more present than others.

My parents used to have a little bit of land with a bungalow in a village close to Berlin that we went to on weekends and grew fruit and vegetables. It was right next to the Wall. You could see the watch towers with the soldiers on top patrolling the border. That was normal for us — kind of…

We had to have the garden to grow most fruit and vegetables, and my parents made marmalade, They cooked the fruit to keep in jars, or we ate it fresh from the trees. People got very innovative with food. The shops and supermarkets were barely stocked enough, and you were limited in buying as much as you wanted or even needed. The products you could buy were mainly grown, harvested or produced in Germany or Russia. Sometimes you had the chance to buy imported produce like bananas. Yes, bananas! People were queuing for hours to get to pay a lot of money for a banana. You maybe got one or two, and if you wanted more, you had to queue again. The shelves in the supermarkets were empty and you had one only one option for each kind of product. One kind of yoghurt, one kind of chocolate, one toilet paper brand.

People came up with good ideas and recipes to make the most out of what they had. A few products survived after the Wall came down and when I get them now I still get excited. A few things I remember is a dough we got from a friend that was growing and growing and you could bake a cake every couple of days from it. My mum got a kefir fungus to make our own yoghurt. That was very hard to get and once you had it you would make the most out of it. I could not say that we were missing out on anything or were starving. We