In my pursuit of professional success and personal development, I had long since internalized the concept of ''overwork'' - the idea that relentless work and total dedication were the keys to progress. I believed that the way I approached first studying and then working was already part of the 'work-life balance.' Even though there was nothing balanced about it, I had to disillusion myself a lot in order to open myself up to different work cultures. It was not an easy battle, but since coming to Kulturschöpfer, I have experienced a fundamental change in perspective that has helped me to have a more pleasant life.
I landed on the internship announcement with tears in my eyes, having lost my job and wrapped up in the thought that all the efforts, all the extra work, had not been worth it in the end. Exhausted, I decided to do a new one anyway. But why? Well, they described themselves as 'professionally chill'—an unfamiliar and strange concept that aroused my curiosity and prompted me to explore what a different way of looking at work might be.
During my time at Kulturschöpfer, I learned that it is not only about working hard and pursuing goals but also about enjoying life in its entirety and making space for yourself, family, and friends. I discovered that flexibility, rest, willingness to take risks, and acceptance of making mistakes are just as crucial as hard work. Kulturschöpfer also taught me the principle of ‘organized chaos,' which means that while it is essential to have a framework within which creativity and innovation can flourish, there should also be room for flexibility and spontaneity.
However, one of the most significant lessons I learned from my experience at Kulturschöpfer is that if you have a community at work where you feel appreciated and understood, you will no longer associate work with the word effort. By working together and learning from each other, we can achieve much more than we could individually. Communities are not just for networking; they are meant to help us get creative together and achieve our goals collectively.
Finally, at Kulturschöpfer, I learned the importance of taking time to rest and allow oneself to fail and forgive those failures. In a world that speaks of mistakes as negative, I realized that if I had never made all those mistakes, I would not have ended up at Kulturschöpfer. I would not have known and learned all that I know and am.
And in writing this piece, I constantly find myself thinking of Paulo Coelho's words 'Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about un-becoming everything that isn't really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.’ These words have the power to encapsulate what Kulturschöpfer and its community did for me: they helped me undress everything I had covered myself with to be a successful person, and they helped me undress everything that didn't belong to me. All this was life-changing. It's not easy, but it's necessary and extremely fulfilling.
-Matilde (Intern Cohort 8)