Marika, Bookkeeper & Accountant
Marika grew up in the capital city Warsaw, Poland but most of her time she spent in Lekarty, a countryside village, 3 hours drive from Warsaw. She stayed at a family cottage by the lake surrounded by forests and farmlands. She learnt how to live a fun life where she spent most of her time swimming, cycling, wild mushroom picking, harvesting fruit and vegetables, hanging out with friends and family and helping out at her friends’ farm. She learnt everything about farming she could, from collecting eggs, milking cows and goats, delivering piglets, feeding animals and getting dirty in the fields during harvest season. This was the perfect childhood for her, feeling connected with community and nature.
After certain events in life, at the age of 15, her mum and brother decided to move to England to have a fresh start in life. Her mum’s dream was for her kids to have a good education and live an independent life. While it was challenging adjusting to a new culture, norms and learning the new language, her and her family settled in comfortably and built their new life. Marika applied for an undergraduate degree at University of Sheffield to study Accounting and Financial Management BA. At the end of her degree, she started to look for career options and decided to join a finance graduate scheme in order to continue with her studies whilst working full time. She received sponsorship to complete CIMA chartership in order to become a fully qualified management accountant. It was a long and hard journey but super worth it!
After moving between cities and jobs, she decided to settle down in Newcastle Upon Tyne. And this is where the thirst for adventure and the focus on existing and new hobbies began. She started travelling, rock climbing, mountain biking, yoga and paragliding. Her focus in life and direction has changed when she started to feel tired of spending her life office-bound and living for weekends and holidays. Whilst deciding what to do next, she started converting her van with her close friend who also happened to purchase the same van! They designed, sourced and built it all by themselves. Although they mainly ended up procrastinating, changing the design and shopping for the materials they had so much fun building both vans together. Whilst doing all above, she decided to quit her full time job, rent her flat and became a freelancer. She currently lives a nomadic lifestyle, travelling in her van whilst working, climbing, yoga and mountain biking in Europe but also travelling further abroad to work and fly as a solo paragliding pilot.
Marika is currently staying in Nepal where she recently qualified as a solo paragliding pilot, flying in the Himalayas and enjoying the slow and also busy life there. When she is back in Europe, she plans to move back into her van, focus on rock climbing, mountain biking and flying, checking out new spots and locations. The exciting news is that Marika has bought her new hike and fly gear, basically making her hikes even more fun! And, as she further gains more knowledge and experience, she wants to combine her two favourite hobbies, rock climbing and flying.
The recent changes in my personal and work life have taught me how to slow down, focus on things that matter in life and enjoy it to the fullest. It has been a life-changing experience to switch from a full-time, office-based job to a part-time, freelance job. Not only that, but swapping my flat for van living has given me more flexibility to move around, explore and decide what to do next…
Marika, Bookkeeper & Accountant
And, a fun fact about Marika – she loves to cook and eat good food. Her favourite is trying and tasting different types of pickles from different countries, different ingredients and different methods of pickling. She has been exploring new flavours and spices whilst travelling and she cannot wait to cook for her dear friends and family.
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