This is the first part of my series where I tell you stories from my sailing career. The goal with these blog posts is to either inspire you or amuse you. This time I hope it will be a little bit of both. Let me know in the comments what feelings this invoked in you.
Looking at how much of my life I have dedicated to sailing, one would think that I fell in love with the sport right away. However, that was not the case at all. In fact during my first autumn of weekly practice in the Optimist dinghy, I had multiple temper tantrums and even tried to escape from the practice. I remember one time when I got stuck with the bow straight towards the wind, sail flapping, unable to get the boat moving. Inspired by the great Obelix, I jumped out of the boat and tried to push the boat ashore. Turned out I wasn't quite as strong as Obelix so my coach had to pick me up from the water. Must have looked quite funny, but I don't think the coach was that amused. Another time I just jumped out of the boat and tried to swim ashore as I couldn't handle the boat, again forcing my coach to fish me up from the sea.
After these challenges it would have been easy to give up and try a simpler sport, but I kept showing up to practice (or then my parents kept bringing me to practice, who knows 🤷). Either way I am happy I didn't quit, because I would have missed out on many many valuable lessons and unforgettable experiences.
With this story I want to tell you to not give up if you struggle at first or even if you don't like something at first, because it might just come to shape your life in ways you could only dream of.
Start your own sailing adventure on one of our sailing courses in August or September: https://www.silenbrothers.fi/en/purjehduskurssit
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