Wanderlust with Mr. Parkinson | Pamela Spitz | TEDxFrankfurt

Pamela was living her hectic, stressful, everyday life when she stepped out of her neurologist’s office in 2016 and suddenly felt relief. She didn’t have to worry about her pension anymore, as life was going to be short and intense. She had been introduced to her new partner for life who would never leave her: Mr. Morbus Parkinson. This diagnosis changed everything and gave her the courage to start living life to the fullest. And so began her life of simplicity, changing towards minimalism, in order to experiment new challenges, cross boundaries and get out of her comfort zone. Now, with nothing to lose, she travels the world, writing about her ups and downs with Mr. P to help her deal with her disease in a pragmatic and rational way. Pamela’s talk will tell us about her journey and share her advice on changing your circumstances, before something forces you to stop and wonder, what are you doing with your life? She was born in 1975, made her first trip across the Atlantic when she was two months old and left Munich shortly afterwards to live with her mother and sister in Ecuador traveling all around the country for five years. She spent her youth with her family on the smallest of the four Balearic islands called Formentera with no running water nor electricity in a well-functioning community of hippies and drop-outs until 1990. In 2016, she was diagnosed with the incurable and degenerative disease Morbus Parkinson. Soon after, she founded the blog "Wanderlust with P", which was initially intended only for friends and family, but soon found favour with a wider audience. The blog reports on her travels and her dealings with Parkinson's disease and has become the cornerstone of the book released in 2021 about her travels with Mr P, her so called boyfriend who will never ever leave her. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx