Janina Gutsche

Sometimes I wonder when a story actually begins. Like a movie that gets a script and the first scenes on set, some moments seem to be something special.

They are the stories that change our own lives.

Whether it is moving to another country,

being at or on a concert,

starting a new sport,

or a visit to the sauna.

Some things feel as if they already had a script.

Recently I heard something interesting: that the movie which was number one at the box office on your birthday says something about your life.

For me, it was “Notting Hill”.

Interesting.

In a movie, it is simple.

There is a beginning.

The music starts.

The camera moves across the scene.

Something happens.

In real life, you usually only realize it much later.

I have spent a lot of time outdoors over the last few days. The weather here in Helsinki is simply wonderful. So I went to the park, took a book with me and simply started taking a moment for myself.

I would never have expected this book to speak so deeply to my soul, and I caught myself over and over again being startled by certain sentences and gaining one realization after another.

It was John Strelecky’s book –

German Edition: „Folge dem Rat deines Herzens und du wirst bei dir selbst ankommen“

English Edition: John Strelecky – „What I’ve Learned“

„Follow Where Your Heart Guides…“

I had already read one of his books in the past, which helped me through a very difficult phase of my life.

But this book brought things back into my awareness that invited me to think and reflect.

John asked two very special questions in his book.

“If I could step into a movie and that movie became my real world, which movie would I choose?

If I could play any role in that movie, which one would I choose?”

My absolute favorite movie is “Top Gun”.

I recently watched it here in Helsinki for the first time in my life in a movie theater and in its original English version.

When the movie was released, I had not even been born yet, so I only knew it from German television, where it had naturally been dubbed into German.

Hearing Tom Cruise’s real voice in English for the first time instead of German had a very special vibe.

I think if I had to choose a role, it would be a leading role that always finds its way back to the top. And if I am honest, it fits me surprisingly well, because I have often faced challenges in my life that threw me off course. But no matter how turbulent the flight was, I never stopped getting back up and realigning my course.

Because even if you get caught in a jet wash, at some point you find the courage to attack again and push the throttle all the way forward again.

And who knows what kind of next Hollywood movie might emerge somewhere between “Top Gun” and “Notting Hill”?

Because when you look at John’s third question:

“What can I do today to turn my life into the life from that movie?”

This is what comes to my mind.

A person moves to another country, not because everything is perfect, but because they follow their feelings. They try to build a new life, learn a new language and find their way in a foreign culture. To many people, it would look as if they are searching for their place in a completely new environment. Yet deep inside, there remains this strange feeling that they have arrived exactly where they were always meant to be.

At the same time, they struggle with setbacks and the question of whether they are truly in the right place. They also love adventure, challenges and everything that makes them feel alive. They fall down again and again. Plans fail, people disappear from their life, but new people enter their life who complement them and fit their new self better. And yet, sometimes they doubt whether they should keep going. But every single time they get back up, adjust their course and continue moving forward, because giving up was never really an option.

At the same time, someone keeps appearing. Not constantly. Not with a big Hollywood entrance. But in small scenes. Here and there. Their paths keep crossing. Sometimes they speak, sometimes they do not. Sometimes seemingly nothing happens at all. And that is exactly why it occupies the main character’s mind, because they never know whether all of it is coincidence or whether life is writing a chapter that they simply do not understand yet.

Maybe it is not a coincidence that both of them understand the same language, even though they speak different languages. Because somewhere between all the words there is a language they have both known for a long time: the language of music.

As the story moves forward, it becomes more and more obvious that it is told through two people who come from completely different worlds and whose paths keep crossing. At the same time, it is a story about trusting your own path, even when you do not know where it will lead. Because sometimes encounters do not just change us; they become part of the story we are writing. And maybe that is exactly what it is about: finding out whether two people whose paths keep crossing will one day decide to walk the road together.

Between freedom and arriving, between adventure and coincidence, between full throttle and quiet encounters, a story emerges that feels like Top Gun and Notting Hill at the same time. A story about courage, second chances and the question of whether some encounters might be more than just a random moment.