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20 Juin 2014
Un vol pour Buenos Aires, un été avec la promesse de tous les possibles. Le 20 juin 2014 fut la journée d’un tournant important dans la vie de Marco Simeone, ce jeune italo-suisse qui a très vite eu le goût des voyages et de l’aventure, en partant notamment seul à l’âge de 14 ans en Nouvelle-Zélande pour apprendre l’anglais. Un peu plus de 10 ans après, un nouveau grand départ, l’excitation est à son apogée. Les deux pieds dans la cabine, juste avant le décollage, le sentiment qui l’accompagne est celui d’une liberté totale : "C’est à ce moment où j’ai réalisé que je pourrai enfin vivre chaque instant pour moi" nous témoigne-t-il.
Et pourquoi l’Argentine? A priori peu attiré par les pays d’Amérique du Sud, beaucoup de ses amis en reviennent enchantés et finissent par le convaincre d’aller découvrir ces contrées de ses propres yeux. L’Argentine aussi pour les chevaux, animal qu’il côtoie depuis sa plus tendre enfance et avec qui il entretient une relation spéciale. Il veut apprendre depuis longtemps l’espagnol mais a très vite écarté l’Espagne de ses plans, fatigué de la mentalité européenne et un besoin pressant de quitter cette «cage», comme il la décrit, d’un système qui laisse peu de place à la spontanéité.
A 31 ans seulement
"Un mois dans une école de langue dans la capitale et ensuite on verra, on improvisera". En effet, Marco sait très bien improviser et se laisser porter par les opportunités qui s’offrent à lui. A seulement 31 ans, on pourrait croire qu’il en a vécu déjà le double. De chef de service dans une banque à la conciergerie, en passant par cocher, guide touristique, réceptionniste et garde de nuit dans un hôtel, vendeur de matériel alpin, moniteur de ski et entraineur de chevaux. Je ne suis même pas surpris lorsqu’il nous confie que ce qui le stimule le plus dans sa vie ce sont les défis. Il s’ennuie vite et fuit la routine, son envie d’apprendre est inépuisable. Il aime travailler autant avec sa tête qu’avec ses mains et je suis fasciné de voir tout ce qu’il gère dans cet hôtel juché au milieu des Andes. La plomberie, le jardinage, l’entretien des locaux et des bains thermaux, contrôler et entretenir l’arrivée d’eau, l’accueil des clients, l’organisation des événements, l’administration générale de l’hôtel. Il adore trouver des solutions aux problèmes et les contraintes ne lui font pas peur, bien au contraire, elles le poussent à être encore plus créatif et je sens que c’est un réel moteur dans son quotidien.
Son rapport à la Suisse
"Seulement ma famille et mes amis d’enfance me manquent", il a quitté ce pays car il ne se retrouvait plus dans ses valeurs. En travaillant dans les banques, il a eu un aperçu assez caricatural de cette société de consommation "métro-boulot-dodo", mais reconnaît aussi les choses positives qui ressortent de cette expérience. "J’aimerais pouvoir construire un jour ma propre maison", mais il s’est vite rendu compte que même en travaillant dur et en essayant d’économiser un maximum d’argent, il lui serait difficile d’atteindre cet objectif en Suisse. Sans même parler des normes de constructions qui compliquent encore le processus. Marco n’est pas du genre à renoncer à ses projets, ses rêves, et si ça ne marche pas ici, pourquoi pas ailleurs ?
L’immensité
Ce qu’il aime en Argentine ce sont les grands espaces, la diversité des écosystèmes et surtout le fait qu’il y ait encore de la place. "Il y a encore de quoi se perdre ici". Pas de réseau, se sentir au milieu de nulle part sans les ressources actuelles. "Vivre avec ce sentiment de vulnérabilité est très intéressant" souligne-t-il. Marco parle aussi du lien direct avec l’égo et toutes ses réflexions qui en découlent, car cette immensité nous remet indéniablement à notre place.
Sa famille
"J’ai toujours été un pilier dans ma famille et certains membres se référaient à moi pour prendre des décisions". Il pense que son départ a fait du bien à tout le monde dans une certaine mesure, même si le manque est bel et bien présent et qu’il a toujours en tête qu’en cas d’événements importants, d’urgences ou autres, il pourra difficilement être présent pour eux au vue de la distance qui les sépare. "Un exemple, lorsque ma sœur a accouché, j’aurais vraiment aimé être à ses côtés, ou encore le jour où mon frère a perdu son chien en Italie, j’ai activé les recherches sur les réseaux sociaux et fait tout ce que je pouvais à distance, mais cela peut s’avérer parfois compliqué". Marco est conscient que cela fait partie intégrante de l’expérience de vivre loin de ses proches et jusqu’ici ne regrette pas son choix.
Ses premiers contacts avec les chevaux et ses souvenirs à la ferme
Les premiers contacts datent de son enfance, car son oncle et son grand-père tiennent une ferme aux Grisons avec plusieurs chevaux. A l’âge de 6 ans, il commence petit à petit à travailler avec eux, il va dans la forêt avec son oncle et ils utilisent les chevaux pour débarder du bois. En grandissant, Il participe de plus en plus à la vie de la ferme, traire les vaches, nourrir les chevaux, nettoyer les boxes, etc. Il apprend beaucoup en observant et par mimétisme, car on ne lui montre pas nécessairement comment faire. Pour son grand-père il doit savoir, un point c’est tout. Marco parle de cette période avec beaucoup de fierté, il était heureux de pouvoir participer à toutes ces activités et s’habiller avec les bottes et tout l’équipement de travail "comme les grands". Cette époque a définitivement marqué sa vie et a clairement contribué à devenir celui qu’il est aujourd’hui. Cet élan pour la nature, les animaux, cette recherche d’une vie plus simple et surtout plus proche de l’essentiel. Personnellement, je ne peux qu’imaginer tous les biens-faits de côtoyer en tant qu’enfant un environnement comme celui-ci.
Ses projets d’avenir
Pour l’instant Marco se sent bien à Los Molles, cela fait un an et demi qu’il est en charge d’assurer la maintenance d’un hôtel. Il n’a pas oublié son rêve de construire sa propre maison, et sait que tout ce qu’il apprend en ce moment sont des cordes qu’il ajoute à son arc pour devenir un jour complètement indépendant. Il vit ici avec sa femme Silvia qu’il a rencontré lors de son premier travail en Argentine. Ce que j’ai pu ressentir en immersion dans son quotidien, c’est que Marco est en paix avec lui-même et que cet environnement correspond pleinement à ses valeurs et principes de vie. Il a fait le choix conscient de vivre loin de la ville et de cette soi-disant réussite sociale qui l’accompagne, dans une forme de solitude qui répond à son équilibre intérieur. J’aimerais conclure cet article avec une phrase de Sylvain Tesson : "Certains hommes espéraient entrer dans l'Histoire, nous étions quelques-uns à préférer disparaître dans la géographie".
Nadir
Marco Simeone
An exhilarating rush of adrenaline courses through Marco as the engine propels the aircraft off the ground. He leaves the country feeling light. Only a month’s worth of plans awaits him in Buenos Aires, where he’s enrolled in a language school and booked his bed in a hostel. His official status in Switzerland is now “Globetrotter”. Farewell to twenty-five years of life bound to the country, to its joys and its deceptions. The only things that weigh on him are to have bid farewell to his family at the airport, and a letter in the palm of his hands.
From high up in the sky he sits in a brew of emotions and sensations. What stands out is freedom, knowing that he will be the sole author of his new chapter, the only one to make the calls from now on. It was time for him to return to the essential question we all get asked as children: “What is it that you want to do in life?”. Allowing space to ask ourselves that question is bound to do three things for certain:
Shake things up (could be more or less dramatic)
Cause us to look in the mirror (could be more or less comfortable)
Set us in motion to explore a new path (could be more or less daunting)
According to Marco, asking himself that question 5 years ago was of great significance. He realized there were many possible answers. As a person who enjoys and seeks change, the exploration of his potential and all the challenge it brings, Marco’s life is not short of interesting experiences. I invite you to discover some of them.
Shaking things up
Marco speaks of several inner revolutions that happened growing up, including the fact that he himself has been a revolutionary at heart since a young age. Marco is the eldest of three, born to a Swiss German mother and Southern Italian father. He grew up in the region of Nyon, where he also started a career in banking following his apprenticeship. As an energetic child, he found joy in being outdoors and in physically demanding activities such as gymnastics, and later in kickboxing. Despite being a good student, going to school conflicted with his aversion to competition, comparison and conformity, which according to him are inherent to the system our society is built on.
When he was twelve years old, his parents’ divorce shook things up in the family. The changes it caused, coupled with the pressures of growing up, became emotionally difficult for Marco to manage. He became a troublemaker at school, and he had a knack for being wherever there was trouble even if it wasn’t his fault. Despite this, his mother’s trust in him was unwavering. She herself was the “black sheep” in her own family, she understood him and supported his taste for adventure. She made him a compelling offer when he was fourteen, which was to go learn English in New Zealand while working on a farm during the summer. This experience fit him like a glove: total independence, disconnection from everything and motivating challenges. At the same time, to be stripped of his usual resources such as his family’s proximity and even phone network was as Marco likes to say with a smile: “interesting!”. During that time he reflected a lot on himself, his relationships and life in Switzerland. A pivotal experience which continued to feed his revolutionary personality and distaste for the system.
Looking in the mirror
Fast-forward to a few years later, Marco finds himself in a suit working in a bank as a financial advisor. He worked hard to climb the career ladder and gained valuable professional and personal experience. But deep down, he was left with the empty feeling that this wasn’t what he wanted. Advising clients for their financial decisions made him acutely aware of the fact that he too, would be limited in his decisions such as affording to build his own house. He strongly felt the shackles of a system which forced him to work more but did not buy him freedom. In addition to that, thriving in the banking environment required him to be competitive, pay attention to appearances, and to disconnect from his emotions. He felt he had had no choice in the matter, and did not like that he was impersonating everything he had so vehemently disagreed with earlier in life. He wasn’t living by the simple values he wanted to, which are authenticity, honesty, total independence, exploration and enjoyment. Marco says of that time: “When you know something is wrong, you know it’s time to go back to basics and ask yourself the essential question, what do you really want to do?”.
Facing himself made him want to take action, and so he quit his job. For a few months he went to the Grisons canton to help his uncle on the farm and work with the horses. He took the time to take a step back and figure out what to do next.
Exploring a new path
Much like opening a long-lost chest of treasures, he reopened parts of himself to figure out the next step. He had always wanted to learn Spanish, and had ease with learning languages (already fluent in French, Italian, German, English). He also wanted to travel, and go back to doing something with horses which had been a part of his childhood when he spent time on his grandfather’s farm. He felt called to go someplace far from home like he had done as a teenager, distance himself from the European mentality and to live in wide open spaces away from cities. And so, Argentina came as an answer. After a month of Spanish lessons in the capital, he would improvise and find his way to the countryside. This turned out to be in Barreal, a province of San Juan bordering with Chile right by the Andes mountain range.
On his first day in Barreal working in a Posada’s kitchen, he met Silvia, who is his wife now. After a month of work, he gained the owner’s trust to work with the property’s horses. He was put in charge of training a horse for long-distance racing. For training purposes a second horse was needed, so he decided to purchase his own. Instead of having to ride with different horses, this would allow him the leisure of training his own. That is when “Neno” came into the picture. For two months, he rode daily with the horses and went all over the place in the pampa and the mountain range. He knew from previous experience that horses effectively act as a mirror. Indeed, their acute sensitivity will tend to reflect the energy of whoever is tending to them. While training Neno and the race horse, Marco practised being completely present, in his most authentic state. Working with his horse always brings him close to his values: authenticity, exploration on horseback, and the enjoyment to simply be.
In this same spirit of exploration and discovery, Marco spent a few years working seasonally in the tourism industry and refining his skills. He worked as a night auditor, field guide for horseback riding, Land Rover tours and ziplining in El Calafate, ski instructor, and successful sales manager in a ski shop.
Coming full circle
For the last year and a half, he has been in charge of maintaining a seasonal hotel property in the region of Las Leñas. He spends his days running the administration, maintenance, and operations of the property. Although he follows general directives from his owner, he sets his own goals and has the freedom to shape his days as he pleases. Mostly doing manual work, there is a calm determination in the way he navigates his various projects from start to finish, much like a peaceful meditation. He enjoys fixing problems and takes every opportunity to become more and more self-sufficient. One of his most recent projects is the creation of a vegetable garden, a challenging feat at two thousand metres of altitude in a windy region.
What does he see for the future? There is a long-term project of building his own house, but now is not the time. Alternately, the idea of buying a boat and setting sail across the world would agree with his love for change and movement. At the moment he is happy to let things flow and be as they are, and as he knows from experience: “Life is always suggesting things. It’s a question of opening our eyes and being attentive. Being narrow-minded makes us lose sight of the bigger picture”.
Something I won’t forget from meeting Marco is his view about human potential. Just about anything is possible, if we are willing to put work into it. According to him we are complex beings capable of so much, if only we dare to awaken our senses and the deep yearning we aren’t listening to. Why not explore? After all, aren’t we all acquainted with change already? If you simply answered with the spontaneity of your inner child, what is it that you really want to do?
Yasmin
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