Ben

After a nearly 40-year career as a professional officer in the Army and many wanderings, I am back on the old nest, the Genie Education and Training Centre in Vught. I will be working there for a year as a project leader, before going on Functional Age Dismissal (FLO), a kind of military pre-pension, in mid-2018 at the age of 58. But what after that? Financially, the sheep are pretty much on dry land, life partner Annemarieke will continue to work a few days a week at the local GP practice; the children will have left home by then and with the household, the garden and some reading, sports and travelling, all the ingredients for the Swiss life are present, you might say….. Or are they?

Thus began the brainstorming process on how to fill life after the service! It took me past thoughts like: I no longer want to work in permanent employment for a boss; I no longer want a heavy managerial job with lots of responsibility and even more hassle, but I want to be able to decide what, when, how much and where! After all, it is no longer a question of having to but being allowed to work! I would prefer to do something with and for people who need it with the proverbial boots in the mud or hands at the bedside! It took me past cliché ideas like: ‘I’ll become a parcel courier! Drive your rounds a few times a week and hang out on the couch in the evening without any nagging. Or I’ll use my SPH training and experience as a carer and volunteer as an ambulatory supervisor in youth care.

Until somewhere a once-cut-out advertisement swirled out of my diary… I picked it up and read it: Express training to become a tour manager with job guarantee from IVOR. I did the self-test on the website and voilà: Natural talent! And suddenly I knew: I’m not going to be a conductor but a tour guide, because that’s where everything comes together. The first cracks in my self-confidence appeared at the selection interview, but the relief of the good news that I could start on 6 January soon overcame them!

The fact that you should not sell the skin before the bear is shot was demonstrated during the intensive training, which I attended with 11 others; I thought that as an Afghanistan veteran, I knew everything there was to know about leadership, working with people, organising, responding to unexpected situations and about communication, such as bad news talks. Not so! I was forced out of my comfort zone from the start, learned a lot about the travel world, guests and especially myself…. Thanks to Emile and his team: what professionals they are! They bring out the best in every trainee and travel providers and especially travellers can only be happy about that.

The great thing is that I can already put that into practice now…

In running our Airbnb, for example, but also in preparing and organising a number of trips on my personal bucket list, such as climbing Kilimanjaro or running a midsummer night marathon in Finnish Lapland! The good news is, that as of next season I will be part of the tour leader team of Actieve Vaarvakanties, which organises sailing-cycling holidays along the Danube, French Moselle and in the Netherlands to Alkmaar, the place where I was born on a warm day in June 1960, among others.

In short, the well-known circle is complete for me!

Ben de Groot

IVOR comment: Ben is an ANVR certified tour manager