How puking for 6 hours at the Montreal airport helped me enjoy life more

Two and a half years ago I got an email, inviting me to come attend the Kingstoon Animation Festival in Kingston, Jamaica (»THE LAST CIGARETTE ON EARTH« was chosen to be a part of the festival’s competitive program). I was shocked. Does that mean I’ll have to meet and talk to people? I haven’t even been out of Europe yet! Jamaica? And I’ll be all by myself? What? MEETING AND TALKING TO PEOPLE? Me? Do I really HAVE to go?
...No, but I SHOULD go - because it’s so far out of my comfort zone! …I guess I’m going to Jamaica.

»It got bad super fast.«

I flew in to Montreal and had a 8 hour layover in between flights. I found a place to sit and ordered myself a pulled pork burger and a beer. “This actually feels ok, I’m kinda having fun already!” I started to feel weird soon after and it got bad super fast. “Is it the burger?” Six hours of puking at the airport toilet later (while trying to keep as quiet as possible!), I needed to gather myself enough to catch the next flight to Toronto, where I had another 9 hour layover. As soon as the plane took off, I unbuckled and ran off to the toilet again. “I’m never having a burger again!” After about 45 minutes, I was asked to return to my seat - we were about to land. I managed to get to the hotel and fell asleep in a second. I couldn’t even undress. As I was drifting in and out of my jet lag infused sleep, light filled the room. A message from my girfriend. She had been sick the entire night, too.

We realized that our kid brought a 12-hour stomach flu from kindergarten. He was ok. And apart from our stomachs, which felt a bit violated, we we going to be just fine, too. In a haze of relief I breathed in Toronto’s morning air and made my way back to the airport. Once we finally touched down in Kingston, I was so drained energetically and emotionally by the mis-adventure I had the day before, that I almost didn’t notice how casually I started a conversation with one of the other attendees of the festival at the airport. Because I wasn’t so centered on myself, I was genuinely interested in the person I was meeting. And the next one. And all the rest that followed. I wanted to talk to people and do everything I was so scared of just one stomach flu ago.

»If everything stems from what we think and how we feel, the world seems really small and lonely«

What I learned from this experience and especially in retrospective since, was that by focusing on ourselves, we make the world seem scarier: if everything stems from what we think and how we feel, the world seems really small and lonely. On the other hand, if we let ourselves be curious about others and the world around us, the world starts to get fascinating. We stop feeling like we’re swimming upstream. It seems counter intuitive, but it’s only when we allow ourselves to go with the stream and not against it, that we find the freedom to breathe. And you know, challenging your comfort zone today just might make you stronger tomorrow.

P.S.: massive thanks to everyone involved in the festival and to everyone I had the pleasure of meeting - you’ve all honestly made Kingstoon a live-altering experience for me!

P.P.S.: if you’d like to check out how my other festival journeys with »THE LAST CIGARETTE ON EARTH« went, you can find them HERE.

“Love the life you live.
Live the life you love.”
― Bob Marley

Portrait of me by Rajendra Ramkallawan, a super cool story artist that I had the pleasure of meeting at the festival. Thanks again Raj!