Metaphorical Mushroom Hunters

I thought it was a fake headline. Does anyone read the words “Mushroom hunter 'massacre' claims 18 lives in Italy” and not think it has to be a joke? But yes, it turns out it is true. People are dying left and right in Italy right now because they are abandoning safety precautions when hunting mushrooms. At least18 people died, six of them in a 48-hour period, because they were desperate to find mushrooms in the dark and not reveal the best fungi locations. It’s not hard for me to understand, even though I don’t especially care for mushrooms, because we all have our passions in life. Some people just happen to be passionate enough about mushrooms to risk their lives to get them. I understand that passion but I think it’s crazy to risk your life for mushrooms. But there are obviously those who disagree with me. 18 people died for some mushrooms, and not even the hallucinogenic kind. We all have things in life we are willing to take risks for.

In less than two weeks I will be taking what some people view as a huge risk. I will be moving to Qatar, a tiny country located in the Middle East along the Persian Gulf, to be the editor of an English magazine. There are those who think I am crazy. There are those who have expressed those feelings out loud. Many people have asked me ‘why’? Not to get too philosophical or cliché on you or anything, but to that I say ‘why not’? Why would I turn down my dream job because it happens to be in a country that I have never been to? Why would I pass up the chance to see the world just because it might be scary at times?

I have been working towards my goal of being a magazine editor for eight years now. It really isn’t a cliché when I say it’s my dream job because it is absolutely true. Do I wish this dream could have happened in Canada or the United States? Of course, but life doesn’t work that way. I have been given an opportunity and I intend on taking it. I don’t want to have regrets.

That’s not to say it won’t be hard. There will be times it will be devastatingly hard, particularly Christmas and my birthday. I love Canada. I love my family, my friends and my pets. But sometimes you have to give up the things you love most to live your life without fear and regret. I know I will miss out on things. I hate that I will miss out on things. But I will hate myself if I don’t try. If I fail, then hopefully I learn something along the way.

I also love that I feel relatively safe here most of the time. Canada, for the most part, is a safe country. But no country is 100 per cent safe and no one can be protected all the time; that is another fact of life. The country I am moving to is also considered a safe country. It has a very low crime rate and it has only ever had one terrorist threat – a non-resident suicide bomber. Qatar will be strange and completely foreign to me, so it might feel a little scary at first. But life is not about being safe 100 per cent of the time. That is an impossible goal. I do not strive to live life safely; I aim to live life vividly and passionately. Does that make me crazy, naïve, or both? Maybe, but it also makes me happy.

I guess in a way my move to Qatar is my own personal mushroom hunt. I am following my passion into the darkness to see what can grow there. But those mushroom hunters died, you say. Yes, but what the story doesn’t tell us is how many people hunted the mushrooms and lived to tell about it. We don’t know if those who found the mushrooms and made it back to their homes safely found their lives improved or worsened. We don’t know if those who never went looking for the mushrooms in the first place regret their choice. The only way to know if you are making the right choice or not is to actually make a choice, to take action, to risk everything. A wise person once said you cannot win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. I’m buying my ticket, and I’m on my way. Thank you for reading.