Frankfurt Am Main, Germany

TAKING CHANCES

I am now on a 3-hour train ride for a two night visit in Brusells, Belgium. The view again, is overwhelming, an endless sea of snow covered pine trees, and beautiful landscapes. My mom and I have finally accomplished what we were mainly here for, Paperworld, 2010. I have to say, and very grateful, it was a success. All the sleepless nights, sacrifices, were definitely more than worth it! I am forever grateful to my family, who trusted me enough, that I too, can pull off such a feat; I never thought I could handle. And to my surprise, I enjoyed every bit of it, every second, and every breath! It felt like I finally found a place where I belong and I without a doubt saw it more as this extremely extraordinary celebration or better, Paperworld was this one big parade of opportunities.

Being with people from all over the world, the good relationships you gain, is one of the countless opportunities. I will miss, the CBI consultants, Yolanda, Leveine, Hans and Ires and their unbelievable support. I will miss our wonderful booth neighbors; Delia from El Salvador, Diego, Alex, Tatiana, Louis from Columbia, Christina, Yassin and Omar from Egypt, Not and Nat from Thailand, Angie and Monique from Peru, Anuj, Amit, Suma, Damani from India, Linda from Indonesia etc. In them I saw so much drive for greatness, dedication and strength, I surely love to acquire. But for sure, It’s certainly great to know that if someday, I’d find myself in their part of the world; I have them to count on to and vice versa.

All in all, the whole Paperworld experience, its effect on my entire being, to my soul especially, is just hard to explain. But for sure, it has definitely changed me in a million ways. For now, I’m just over flowing with everything that I learned or discovered. Seeing people from all over the world, fighting hard for their dreams, causes and their unbelievable drive and commitment to create all that is beautiful and everything about the word, from pens, journals, leather goods, bags to machines etc. is just awe inspiring!
To simply define Paperworld, in it, is the entire world market, under one roof. You can imagine, the competition is just immeasurable. You can’t help but doubt, if at all you could still stand a chance. But, really, all anybody can do is to just let go, just have faith that someone out there, who needs what you have to offer, will eventually find you. And then you will realize, everyone will always have someone in the end, as long as you are patient and that you fight for it. To me, that is the essence of the entire experience and all the same in reality. With that, I can surely say, life is just sweet for certain.