Never say this is my last contract... I was one of those people who always used to say: I am done with cruise ships... This lifestyle is not for me... Yet...

Most of the time, we have firm plans in our life. We often have expectations regarding how and what we want to achieve, and also when we want to achieve those. Yet, often, we are forced to make adjustments in our life journey. The same happened to me. I have a family, a beautiful wife, kids... 

After my ship life I decided to become a professional football coach in my country. I left behind the life of the cruise ship industry. I took a UEFA coaching course, first a National C license, then a UEFA C license, and recently, I have completed a UEFA B license. Despite working around 12 hours per day in the local football club, my monthly income was around $400. At that point, I was working as a U19 head coach. Aside from my coaching job, I was doing some individual coaching training, but in total, my monthly income never exceeded $500. For the family of 4, this was not enough even for the food and essential bills. When I looked at another part of my coaching job, many other things did not make much sense. Most of the football games in my country were pre-fixed in the mafia deal with betting companies. As a coach, I was only a sacrificing goat for the corrupted members and presidents of the football clubs. There were no fundamental values in the sport; everything was just about the game fixing, and club presidents profited from betting on pre-fixed games. 

While working in the cruise industry, I was taught about some values: discipline, hard work, commitment, and loyalty. As a football coach, nobody cared about those values in my country. It was essential to be involved in the game-fixing between the football clubs, and that was the only way to get your slice of the cake. I was never like that, so this job did not last for long in my career. I was loyal, hard-working, friendly, and committed, with the desire and willingness to work hard. But those values in my country were not necessary, and it was time to think about going back on cruise ship.

At the same time, I used all my savings when I was working on the cruise ship to open my restaurant in my hometown. Everything was going well at some point; my investment proved to be a great decision, and it was amazingly successful at the beginning. After only four months of business operation, the restaurant was making an enormous daily profit; it exceeded all my business expectations and targets. I was thrilled and felt fulfilled. But the Covid 19 happened. Out of nowhere, I was knocked down again.

No customers, no income, no government support. At the same time, the restaurant had some fixed monthly bills, and I could not sustain the normal operation anymore. About two months from the start of Covid 19, I was destined to close down the restaurant. It was a miserable scenario, and the same thing happened to many business owners worldwide. But I learned a valuable lesson that nothing in this world is guaranteed, and nothing is permanent. I learned how to appreciate every single moment and cherish every second in this world, regardless of circumstances, if things are going well or not. Failure does not exist, only lessons that make us stronger and more resilient to external circumstances.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, I applied to a few cruise ship companies. It took almost two years to get a job on the cruise ship again. River ships often have benefits packages, but I decided to return to the ocean cruise line.