1.      Every person has a story, no matter their nationality, age, personality or status. We are all unique.

2.      No one’s life is a straight line. When you have a goal, you start off into a specific direction, but then something happens on the way which leads you to changing your goal and ultimately your path.

Since our mother tongue is German, we did the interview in German and I will now summarize the most important insights for you.

I have known Carola for about three years and we already experienced a lot of great things together, like making pesto from home grown basil, going to a gourmet market in Vienna and many hours of talking about the juicy bits of life in our kitchens. I find her really inspiring and admire how many things she does at the same time. She is a DJ at parties, works at university, studies Media Technology and is a photographer at events inside and outside of the university of applied sciences in St. Pölten.

There is no better example for life not being a straight line than Carola´s. Not only did she move quite a few times in her 23 years of life, but also her career aspirations today are completely different from what they were ten years ago.

She was born in Styria, raised in Salzburg and Carinthia and due to university, she now resides in St. Pölten and studies Media Technology. Her High School had a special focus on Agriculture and Hospitality.  Over the years her interests varied from animals, audio, hospitality, technology and photography. Today she does a bit of everything.

When looking back on her life, Carola realizes that she would not change anything. Every experience and relationship made her become the person she is today. In hindsight things often make more sense than they did before.

She also talks about the impact other people can have on our lives and that they can not only introduce us to new things, but also inspire us to move into new directions. The first people impacting our lives are most often our parents and other family members, later it can be peers, teachers and friends.

“You can´t be what you can´t see.” Jay Shetty

One important lesson you can take from this interview is that there is no give plan on how you should live your life. Stop being so hard on yourself when everything just seems to go sideways from time to time. Make up your own plan and remind yourself that you don’t need to have everything figured out from the beginning. Do things which spark your interest and light your heart with fire. Take every moment as it comes.

“You get to where you want in life just not the way you imagined.” Jay Shetty