Kiki Tsakaldimi

I was born in northern Greece, close to the seas, forests and the Rodopi Mountains. Like any other girl of my time and country, I did my schooling and moved to Athens to find new horizons. In my twenties I found a job that allowed me to travel and offered financial independence. I was clubbing, socializing, experimenting and in those days of the millennium beginning, according to all, I was living the life.

After about a decade of gallivanting around Greece, I returned to my roots by the shores of the Thracian Sea. In my late twenties I got fascinated by the world of fine arts and pursued theatre, painting, ballet, interior design, and art history. Along side my finer pursuits I found haven in sports and outdoors such as tennis, sea swimming, mountain trail running, yoga. And here I met, fell in love and married my life partner, who was incidentally my tennis coach. We built up a beautiful home and our vibrant social life. Our parents were happy, we both had steady jobs, economy was blooming, we travelled and partied extensively sparing no expenses spanning locations from Monaco to Rome, London to Dubai, basking at sunny beaches and zipping down exotic ski resorts. In short I had achieved everything that one could aspire for (except perhaps producing a child, which our mothers desperately wanted from us), fully content, without any really big dream or desire to change my life.

And then life hit me smack on my face, just when I expected it the least. In 2014 I attended a TEDx event in Thessaloniki where I heard the Indian Alpinist Satyabrata Dam share his life and philosophies with us. His words just blew my mind away, and I realized that I was only living a fool’s dream and not truly living. Beginning my humble journey in 2014 from being just another girl, contented with my ordinary life, I went on to achieve many landmarks into the world that I had never imagined myself to be a part of. And it  happened just because of one moment of realization that I was only living but I was not alive at all. As I look back on that road, I can barely recognize myself; physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually the Kiki of 2014 is someone totally alien to the Kiki of now.

I welcome you to walk with me and share some moments of joy, inspiration, living and dreaming the impossible.