Tallinn at 10
My flight to Tallinn departs at 10AM from gate B17. I got up at 5:30, got my train at 6:30, arrived at Schiphol at 7:30 and felt cheated out of at least one extra hour of sleep at 8AM. So far, waking up was the easiest part of this journey. Saying goodbye to Dany, who moved in last week, was the hardest. I know that feeling sad about having to leave her for a measly three days doesn’t bode well for my future as a digital nomad but she makes me happy and it’s hard to leave that behind, even for the shortest time. So why am I flying to Tallinn and why does that name look as if my keyboard got stuck on the l and the n? I can answer one of those questions.
Some time in July, a game was released named Pokemon Go. This game quickly turned into a craze as millions of people roamed the streets, looking for small creatures to catch with their phones. Some people found Pikachu, some found dead bodies. I found a way to make a little money off the back of this game. In three hours — sitting in a lawn chair no less — I built a website that shows you where in the world the rarest Pokemon are. Within 24 hours, I was upgrading servers to handle all the traffic. Within a week I was getting 500 million requests a day. Where there’s traffic, there’s money. Where there’s money, there’s people trying to partner up with you. I sold a part of the website to an old business partner and together we sold another share of the site to an Estonian business owner.
It didn’t take long for our Estonian business partner to find out I was heavily involved in the esports scene, and for him to pitch their new esports project to me. He asked if I’d be interested in leading the technical side of the project and after two meetings with the other parties involved, he invited me to come meet their team and discuss the project in Estonia. Tickets were bought, passports were renewed and nerves were felt. Becoming technical manager of a large project with a successful company behind it is a dream opportunity for someone like me, who’s always had to build projects with a shoestring budget.
So here I am. It’s now 8:37 AM and I’m waiting for my gate to open. I was given the advice to arrive at the airport two hours before my flight would depart. I took that to mean two hours before my gate opened and thus I was the first one at the gate. While Schiphol isn’t the most exciting place to spend your morning, it’s not the worst either. Large winged buses drive around outside while inside, people hurry to their gates, listen to their music, read a book or catch up on some sleep. I’m spending most my time trying not to feel too nervous for my first time flying alone. I’m smart enough to understand how to get to my gate, how to get on my plane and when I’ve landed, how to catch an Uber to the hotel. I’m also smart enough not to forget my passport and my boarding pass or to put liquids in an extra container so I can take them out easily. Unfortunately, while my smarts got me here in the first place, they’re not helping me feel comfortable. I’m about to fly to the most important meetings of my life (so far) and I have nobody to back me up. For the first time in my life, I’m going at it alone and I’ll admit that I’m a little scared.
I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. Only good things are happening right now and my neurotic brain is just putting more pressure on me than it needs to. And the end of this trip I’m sure I’ll hit myself for worrying so much and I’m sure everything will be fine. I’m sure Estonia won’t feel as foreign as the image of it in my head suggests and I’m sure the meetings will go great. I’m just nervous. Scared to mess up the biggest opportunity of my life. Scared to come back, having failed.
It’s 9AM. My gate opens in 20 minutes. When I sit down in the plane, I’ll close my eyes and get the extra 2 hours of sleep I so desperately want. It’s 9AM and I’m at gate B17. I’m about to fly to Estonia for business. That’s crazy.
