At the right place at the right time

The story of my Hike for Freedom began about a month before the actual thing. I was at my university campus one day, when I saw a flyer looking for volunteers to help this charity event, called Hike for Freedom. I thought it was a really cool concept as I enjoy pushing my physical limits, and doing charity. I mean, who doesn't? But more than anything, I wanted to participate on the hike rather than organize it, so I decided to wait on the ad flyers for the event itself.

A couple of weeks went by, and I ran into the ad flyer at a university cafeteria. I see the different distances available, and I'm thinking to do the whole thing, 106 kilometers. Then I check the dates with my calendar, and come to notice: I have work that day! Oh rats. Well, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Another week or so goes by, and I'm walking to the grocery store. To get there, I have to walk across this small patch of forest, and I always do my groceries for the week so I'm carrying a 65 liter backpack. As I'm coming out of the woods, a woman calls out to me on the street saying: "Hey! You look like a guy who likes to walk! Would you like to participate in this charity event?" Turns out, this woman, now a good friend of mine, Monika, was the organizer of the event! I told her the story up until this point and she looked at me and said: "Just come for 5 kilometers. Any distance you can do helps the cause". And so I decided I was going to join the party for 10, maybe 20 kilometers.

So, we embarked on our journey of hiking on a freezing Friday morning in Jyväskylä, Finland at 5AM with a spirit of adventure, exploration, and a little bit of healthy fear or respect for the distance ahead.

Three of the five of us knew each other beforehand, but as we walked, we quickly began bonding as a group. Soon after we started, I came to the decision that I was going to walk the whole thing with the group. Except, I had to work for 2 hours that evening, and then again tomorrow. But work was no issue a this point. I was determined to go through with the hike with the group.

The commitment I made was the right call, as I ended up walking around 75 kilometers with these and some more people, who joined later on and stuck with us till the middle of the night, when it was raining ice. Only one of us who started in the morning reached the goal of 106 that hike, but it seems that sometimes in life we find something important when we are not looking for it. We all came to the hike with different motivations, and even though most of us did not "complete" the hike, we were blessed with fortune.

It is amazing what life can give you if you have an open mind (and in the case of this hike, are willing to suffer for a good cause lol). Hope to see you at the 2026 hike, wherever that may be.

Another week goes by, and it's the day before the event. I get a phone call from an unknown number, which I hesitate to answer. I disregard my fear and answer anyways. First thing I hear is a man's voice: "Umm, yesss, hello. I would like to get the 20 McNuggets and a BigTasty meal, please". I'm thinking: "This guy has to be high what the hell is he calling me to order food? Or he's yanking my d*ck off", so I decide to play ball with him. I reply where he wants them delivered, and I hear laughter on the other end of the line. Monika starts talking and introduces me to her friend Vlad, who's also joining the hike tomorrow.

Somehow, already at that point it felt like this was a group thing I really wanted to be a part of, and they wanted me to join them as well.

She went on to explain the arrangements for tomorrow morning for the start of the hike. We were going to start at 5AM from my university building, and they were going to pick me up at 4. I must've been crazy to agree, but I wanted to walk with the 106 group, so I had to make do with 3-4 hours of sleep.

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