Do you know what I did once? I’m sure I’ve never told any of you this before. I was working on a ship. You know, one of those big ones, travelling the world. That’s what I was doing for 1,5 years of my life and I really, really liked it. I worked in international shipping when I was in my early twenties. That’s what I want to tell you about today.

OK, maybe it’s not fair to say that. I mean I wasn’t really working in international shipping. It’s important for me to avoid that any old colleague would see this and point out that I’m a liar. I was working as a co-chef on a ship that carried out services in international shipping. Right should be right, as we say in my home country. This is how I got the job:

“What about international shipping? Would that be fun?” the guy asked. The guy was a person working in the consultant company that I went to several times. I pointed out that I didn’t know anything about international shipping. I had barely been outside of my country. I was a chef, for crying out loud. What could I possibly…

“I mean that you could work on a ship doing international shipping” he said and shook his head. I got quiet and he was pretty surprised about that. “What does that mean? What does it mean to work on a ship doing international shipping. You mean, like one of those enormous boats?”

Incredibly enough, only 4 weeks later, I stepped on the boat that was going to take us from the U.S., across the Atlantic ocean. Then around the horn of Africa, and then further up the Indian ocean. It was really international shipping. That was no joke at all.

To be fair, when I stepped off the boat after 1,5 years at sea, I was pretty happy. I felt like I wanted to leave those days behind me. International shipping on a ship was fun but it wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my days. I saw what life at sea did to some of my co-workers.

This was the story of my international shipping days. Would you try it?