The value of Friends - Why I quit my career in TV

Eisenring in New York, 2018

Richard Hart

MUST l KNOW

The Value of Friends:

Why I Quit My Career in TV

By Yvonne Eisenring

Swiss bestselling-author and former anchorwoman Yvonne Eisenring wants to prove that the real network of people is more valuable and stronger than the virtual one. Here’s her story:

When I was a little girl, both of my parents only worked part-time as teachers because they both wanted to spend enough time with us kids. Stay-at-home dads were unusual in the 90s. Very unusual. But my father didn’t care. He was happy. Actually always. That he did not have to owe that simply to a sunny mind,I should learn only later.

Summer 2001. I was 14 years old. It was ten o’clock in the evening. My father said that I should finally switch off the computer. Five minutes later he was dead. Heart attack.

When my friends started studying afterschool, I immediately started working. Afteran internship I got a job at the biggest Swissnewspaper. One year later I became a TVreporter. I attended journalism school and usedmy free time to write articles. I got a column,later a second one. Today I’m amazed that Ididn’t fold earlier. But at 23 I was convincedthat I was on the right track. From the outsideit looked like that. I won prizes, becamenewcomer of the year. I ignored that I wasn’treally happy. I didn’t have time to think aboutit either.

I got sick when I was 25. Not seriously.

Eisenring writing in a library in Colombia. Anja Glover

I had a severe flu that didn’t want to disappear. I was forced to stay home. Without stress, without pressure, without praise and without criticism it was terribly quiet. Being stressed and driven in recent years, the hectic of my everyday life, the sometimes cramped, I cried and cried. I was so disappointed and frustrated. I had worked so hard, damn it! I had kneeled down, fought for my success. Why wasn't I just happy? Was dad proud of me, I asked my mother and she said, definitely. But he would be anyway, success or not. Because I should have known one thing, what he had lived for was us and he gave us early advice, but what I never wanted to hear: “Your father always said that the most valuable thing you have is time and therefore you should use your time for the things you love the most. That’s why he didn’t work full time. He loved his job, but he loved you more.”

I didn’t change immediately.It took me two years until I dared.I was incredibly scared of this stepand it took a while until I knew whatI loved the most and what I wantedto use my time for: my friends, myfamily and traveling. I quit my jobwhen I was 27. Everyone declaredme crazy. Why now, they asked.Why when my career was doing sowell? I pretended to know what Iwas doing. But to be honest, I hadno plan.

Today, three years later, I knowit was the right decision. The lastyears were not always easy. I am afreelancer now, writing books andplays. I never know how much I willhave in my account at the end of themonth. It’s usually not much. But Ionly work as much as I have to inorder to get through. I almost neverbuy new clothes, have no fancyhandbags and expensive furniture.I have started studying Philosophy.It is an online program because Itravel so much or live abroad.

CHOOSE HAPPINESS

From top left: Traveling together in Columbia with friends from Paris.

I know it was the right decision because I’ve never been so happy. Not only because I travel so much, but because I can spend so much time with my friends. It’s not surprising that my personal happiness depends on it. According to the largest international study ever conducted on the subject, friendships are the key to a happy, healthy life. Surveys of over 3.4 million people around With two of her very best friends in Warsaw. Visiting her friend Debbie for Oktoberfest in Munich. At a concert in Lucerne, Switzerland with friend Dominik.

My story is one of the reasons why my sister and I started “Yuujou,” a project focused on friendship. We want to prove that the real networking of people is more valuable and stronger than the virtual one. Thanks to the financial support of a friend, six people from all over the world will be able to travel together for 100 days in spring 2019.

Today I regret that I didn’t remember my father’s advice earlier. I should have known better because I experienced for myself how quickly life can be over. I am very healthy, but I don’t know how much time I have left. Nobody knows that. How long can you still do what you want to do? How long can you use your time for the things you love the most? I think it’s a lifelong weighing of who or what gets the most valuable thing you have: your time.

Right: Eisenring on a journey in the Rocky Mountains while taking a break from writing about cowboys.

Above: Eisenring gives talks about why, and how, she lives. This photo was taken in Zurich.

Opposite: Traveling in Colombia.

Michael Crouser

100 DAYS OF FREE TRAVEL: SIX PEOPLE: EPIC FRIENDSHIPS

Yuujou is an international media artproject with 30,000 people from 167 of the194 countries applying to join a cast of sixfor this extraordinary project. Yuujou wantsto show that we are all connected — not onlyvirtually, but in real life. Soon, Yuujou willchoose six of the 30,000 applicants to travelthe world free of charge.

In April 2019, two teams of three peopleeach start in Berlin and head off in oppositedirections. Within 100 days, both teams try tomake it to the other side of the world — Japan.The route unfolds during the trip as thetravelers let their next stop be picked by theperson they’re currently staying with.

JOIN THE ADVENTURE:

Culturs will follow YuuJou during thejourney of six new friends around the world.Watch videos of their adventures, get updatesand find out more about their adventureshere: cultursmag.com/travel-the

Weekly video updates will be uploaded to cultursmag.com

Follow their travel experiences and friendship stories in real time at yuujou.world and on social media.

www.CultursMag.com | Spring 2019