March 18, 2009

Today didn’t get the right start…at first. Luckily I always go back to bed after breakfast to check on emails and socials…so, I could start my day all over again.

I have this project I’m on at the moment, among all the others, that I called “Facebook Book” and it’s basically my offline Facebook. I thought one day maybe Facebook won’t exist anymore and I don’t want to lose the memories I shared, so I’m copying everything. Well, while looking at today’s memories, I found something that made me think, one more time, how lucky I am. I’m an entertainer and always will be and this changed my life more than once. In the last almost 10 years, I’ve seen things change for the better and for worse and unfortunately I’m realizing that the more people have the worst they behave.

I saw a picture this morning, a shoot I took in St. John - Antigua 7 years ago…and I can still smell the Caribbean sea scent, see the smiles of the fellow sailors with me that day, feel the freedom of being offshore and the happiness to do something so normal in a so nonconventional place. There were the cruise director, the singer, the dj, a delegation of the entertainment team and one of the officers, a casino dealer, some technicians, the capitan d’armi…and the cheerleaders, mostly from mini club, ‘cause we’re the best in cheering together with our singer friend ;-). Someone had planned a soccer match and we even had a bus! I think it was an “Officers VS Entertainment” kind of match and it looked like the soccer World Cup final. Being onboard a cruise ship is amazing but you end up missing simple things like your mom’s soup or a friendly soccer match. That day I had a lot of fun with people I can still call friends no matter where life took us ‘cause, despite the difficulties we had that season, there has been a time when we shared our life with each other and we’ll never be able to think about it without remembering everyone else and most of us had an amazing time I’m sure no one regrets.

Yes, being an entertainer onboard a cruise ship is not easy, not at all times, it’s never been and never will be. But guess what, 7 years ago life onboard was harder than today for many different reasons and still, today’s people complain more about it than in the past. Today’s work is made easier and people in charge are more competent, today you have rights and you know them, today you can make the best of an experience onboard and most of the people don’t take advantage of it. Once, and I feel old and sad while writing this, we had to come up with something new every day in order to work, once your boss was a real jerk with a lot of power, once we had less rights, or we didn’t know we had some, or we simply didn’t care, once we could have complained about our days all day long and we chose instead to complain less and enjoy more. Once life was harder and smiles were bigger, today I see a lot of sadness for no real reasons.

Once there were teams, departments…call them whatever, but someone organized a soccer match where there were no differences. Today’s people don’t even know the name of others in a different department.

Well, not everyone. There is still someone making an effort to live onboard and not just to survive. To those souls I would love to give a day in my past, they would have had fun and we would have cheer that strange team, on that messy court, in a very hot day, in St. John.

Dedicated to those people who were never afraid of sharing their life with some random strangers and never forgot kindness while doing it. You have been friends, teachers, colleagues, mentors and, no matter what, you’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Love, Nadia