Our parents just trusted that we'll come back safely!

Two 14 year old girls hiking for 3 days - no phone.

It was 1992 when my bestie and I had the idea to walk from Yverdon to Lausanne, sleep in a tent, cook over the fire and have the best adventure ever. So we did it.

When I imagine my daughter Mika suggesting the same idea I thank my mother for the millionth time for installing this trust in me that I am safe. I can do whatever I want. I am capable. I am free. If my girl wants to do some kind of adventure like this I would answer the same as my Mama: Plan and pack well and enjoy the journey!

I think she didn’t even consider being scared that we wouldn’t come back or something would happen to us.

Well, we were lying in our tiny green tent the first night and I remember it like it would have been yesterday …. My bestie asked in the dark: “What if a bad guy would come to our tent?” Oh my… we started to discuss possibilities and if having a knife ready would help or just be taken away from us by the stronger party of the fight… We kind of slept some part of the night but it wasn’t super relaxing I must say.

The hiking was flat and super easy and I just checked the distance on google maps and laughed. We could have done this distance in one day. Why did we go for 3 days? Obviously it was summer vacation and we had time. The cooking was the best. I don’t remember the menu but I know that we felt proud that it was so yummy!

But then. The second evening after dinner we started pondering where to sleep to feel safe. We didn’t want to set up the tent, because we couldn’t see the predator approaching. Better no tent was the conclusion. Our fireplace was on a beautiful clearing above a village on a hill. (The beautiful sunset wasn’t really captured by my first camera I ever owned) But there were cornfields. Back in the nineties there were some stories going around where kids got kidnapped into corn fields from the gravel road. We decided to get away from these cornfields asap and packed our stuff. No tent. No cornfields. When my friend got tired of looking for a good spot she said: “Let’s just put our mats down into this potato field."

We snuggled into our sleeping bags when the deers in the rutting season started crying really loud. It sounded like a thriller where at least 10 people got killed so…we un-snuggled fast and ran down the road into the MIDDLE of the village. There on a meadow underneath a wall… next to…drumroll…the cemetery we laid down and slept like babies.

The next morning with the first sunlight we got up and arrived in Lausanne super early. The one thing we wanted to see was the olympic stadium : ) (I don’t remember why!) so we went there first. Lausanne is a really cool city with the best view on lake Geneva. I don’t remember strolling through the city. Maybe we just took the train home?

My parents knew that I’m back home safe when I walked in the door. I think I would at least text Mika once to say “have fun, good night”. But maybe I would just hold back and let her experience her adventure on her own, like my parents did. Because I think kids LOVE that. Independency and building their own self trust with little and big adventures.

Could something terrible happen? Yes, of course.
Is there a 100% guarantee for safety in this world? No, not at all.

What kind of adventure or project would YOU love to experience but you’re holding back because it’s too dangerous, too ambitious, too… something?

Could this email with the story of these two teenagers doing a 6.5 hour long hike in 3 days with all their fears and all their wonderful experiences and all the fun they had, be the nudge for you to JUST DO IT?

As you can read, I remember a lot of tiny details of these 3 days and this is 31 years ago!! Memories are our biggest treasure in our lives.

Tell me: What is on your bucket-list, on your wish-list, in your mind? What would you love to do, experience, change, go for?

What if you would start planning it?

I can’t wait to hear about your adventure!

Lots of loooove from Zurich, Switzerland

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This is a story from my weekly Joy-Letter that goes out every Sunday. Do you want to be the first to hear my personal scrapbook stories? Then sign up below.

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