Meet Yelena, one of our team members, who happen to get into by chance but appears to stay for long.
Everyone has their own story of moving to another country, landing a job or just learning a life lesson. I tended to think that the best definition of luck is getting first to the right place at the right time, but it turns out that being the second could be even luckier.
When my friend and I arrived in Berlin, we both could hardly imagine what to expect. We heard there were usually volunteers at the stations who could help people from Ukraine get information on what to do next. In fact, my initial plan was to get to Dusseldorf as soon as possible since that was the only city in Germany I remember visiting as an adult. We also knew that Berlin was already packed, so not much chance to find a place there.
The volunteer at a station said there was actually a spot in the city where we could stay overnight, which seemed a great idea when you don’t really see where to go. When we arrived on site, there was a man waiting for us (just in case, Silvio Shrobinger, the leader of Goerzwerk community). He had a word with our volunteer driver, showed his ID card and said we could stay there for up to a couple of weeks if we had the need. As I found out later, there was a big group of other people from Ukraine who had to get to that place the day before us, and Silvio had already everything prepared for their visit. However, their plans had changed, those guys (more likely, girls) headed somewhere else, and the room was free to welcome other guests. Us, for instance. If that group had stayed in Berlin, I guess my friend and I would have comfortably spent a night somewhere in a school hall or a church. Those were most typical locations to welcome large groups of guests from Ukraine.
Anyway, we had a place to stay, which meant the time to decide what to do next. Within the following few weeks I found out that every next volunteer at every next information spot knows every next thing about what is going on in the country, where we as ‘temporarily relocated’ should move and what relationships we had to establish with the local authorities. It seemed like whichever city you go to, it’s packed with those who were fleeting from Ukraine. You could basically just travel around the country for months and look for where to stay longer than a couple of days. Things seemed pretty murky and unstable.
Funnily enough, one thing remained pretty stable throughout the time - consistency that Team Goerzwerk demonstrated in helping me and a bunch of others who stayed together within the community. To me, it was rather surprising that someone who is probably busy in their everyday life with their everyday stuff was ready to support those who they barely knew. Me, my friend, and a couple of families who stayed in Goerzwerk together with us got extensive assistance in looking for a place to live, work and other modern civilization perks we usually see by default as basic if we have them but miss badly if we don’t.
What’s interesting, the flat I was super lucky to get (with the help of the Team, just in case), was firstly prepared for a Ukrainian family who once aimed to stay in Berlin, but then suddenly changed their mind and went to a different place. Deja wu, huh?
So when I got a message from Therese Schwalenberg, one of the Goerzwerk team members, that a 3D-printing company in Goerzwerk is looking for an employee, and they are happy to accept someone from Ukraine, I could predict the pattern. They might have just invited someone who decided to move somewhere else in the last minute and created an opportunity for me. Still not sure whether it’s true, but the fact is that I got a chance to become a part of MaxResolution3D. Judging from my previous experience, it should be a great start of even a greater career journey!
As said before, everyone has their own story, and this is mine. It appears people can help each other in a million different ways. Some could be ready to invest their time in dealing with your business, even if they don’t have to. For others it’s just enough to change their mind and move somewhere else, allowing you to arrive the second=)
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