A Hero's Journey

Learning by playing

I started exploring this world on the snowy night of January 3rd 1995. Ever since I have been analyzing everything around me and trying to fit the whole puzzle of existence. To this effect, the boundaries of reality have been a burden to me. To solve this issue I relied on Fantasy novels, partly to escape into dimensions where different laws applied and partly to train my mind to think beyond the obvious. Changing the limits like that allows me to review problems from completely new perspectives.

Games have been another way for me to do this, but it was not until third grade of high school that I moved beyond the Nintendo GameBoy/DS and played a greater variety of games besides Pokémon. From that point on I became more familiar with PC gaming, mainly with Rayman, Assassins Creed and World of Warcraft. A rather extensive amount of online games passed by as well. Around the same time we also got a Nintendo Wii at home, that introduced me to console gaming. My discovery of console gaming has continued in recent years with PlayStation4 and, in accordance with my Nintendo-tradition, the Switch.

Learning by discovering

Another personal preference that started to manifest early on was traveling. My parents always tried to plan a family vacation of about two weeks in July and managed to do so with different styles of travel. Our trips ranged from driving to Austria for a holiday walking up the Alpes or to Italy for culture and relaxation over road tripping through Germany to an airplane trip to sunny Tenerife. As a result I have learned to enjoy different travel styles and to relish in the simple fact of getting to know a new destination.

This habit for travel and my inherent curiosity for the world has had another side effect: Belgium and Europe quickly became too small for me. I long for discovering more of the world. Not simply as a holiday, but as a way to learn and achieve knowledge. How do other people live? What is their culture, their inspiration, their drive? What has nature created and how has humanity adapted? These question were a main drive to do an exchange year to Ecuador after high school.

Learning by studying

My school career got of on a wrong foot. At the age of 12 I had chosen to start with the option Latin in high school. It was in an attempt to satisfy my curiosity for Roman history, culture and philosophy. Disappointment hit hard when it dawned on me that the course mainly entailed the language rather than anything else. Although I tried to continue, in the third grade it became apparent that I had to change course. Thus I happened to continue in Economics at the start of fourth grade.

In Economics I enjoyed the possibility of training my own skills in global analysis and fitting my insights of political and global events into an economic framework. I would continue this track into University, as it allowed me to study in a direction with good labour market chances and yet keeping a societal point of view. Still, my strong suit was and always will be to fit all pieces of the puzzle together rather than proving the theoretical (mathematical) existence of the puzzle. 

All things come in threes*

The latest obstacles I have encountered have proven to me one very important thing: I have neglected certain skills and knowledge that would enhance my capabilities to analyse human behavior from a macro perspective. As such I am determined to keep on learning. Learning by playing, learning by discovering and learning by studying. For all three can give a different perspective to the same problem. They also enhance each other, printing a lesson more deeply into a persons mind. Therefore I look to the future in anticipation, knowing that there is so much to learn.

* 'Uncharted: The Lost Legacy' from Naughty Dog Studios