Hey, wow, I feel like
my life has changed a lot since my last video, which was somewhere in the
icy, frozen north of Europe. This here is my little apartment that I've been staying in in Poland, and I'm gonna show you
around a little bit. But today's video is gonna
be a little bit different. I haven't done a Q&A video
in over a year and a half, and my life has changed a lot since then. So I had you guys ask me all of your questions over on Instagram, and you gave me a lot to think about. "Are you sad that you won't
be living in the USA?" "Anything new in your romantic life?" "Where do you see yourself at 40?" "Is Everest on your list?" As I get ready to run an ultramarathon. Okay, so before I go into the questions, I just wanna show you a
little bit of the place that I've been staying in. This is, like, not my permanent
new home by any means, but it's just like a temporary
base that I've created while I search for my new home. So I just wanna show you one thing. ♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da ♪ I don't think I've ever
shown you this before, or maybe I have, but this is my pride and joy. Thank you, guys, for making it happen. Okay, first question of the day. Alexandra is asking, "How are you really?" I like to start with these questions because they just kind
of set the tone, right? So I am really good, actually. Yeah, I feel like I'm at peace in some way that I haven't been in a
very long time, maybe never, and life is good. I'm feeling really, really
good about the future. Okay, so a tiny little bit about this race that I am about to go run, just
so you know what I'm doing. It's a 100K, it's like
60 something miles race in the mountains of Poland with almost 5,000 meters
of elevation gain. It's a nonstop race. It's my second a 100K ultramarathon, and I am terrified 'cause it's supposed
to rain the whole time, and I hate the rain. I hate the rain. Anyway, I guess by the end of this video, you'll know whether I made
it to the finish line or not. Hiking after 40 is asking, "Are you sad that you won't
be living in the USA?" You know what? Whoever said I wasn't
gonna live in the USA. I don't know. I might do at one point in my life. I'm 33, and a lot could change in
the next 50 years of my life. 60 years of my life. You know, I know this may
sound really, really silly, but I'm trying to, like, figure out a cute outfit for my run. And I know this probably sounds ridiculous 'cause I'm supposed to be running a race and not going to a fashion show. But you wanna look a little bit cute. You want your colors to match, you know? Next question, Cultergeist, "What is your perception of Americans? Do we deserve all the hate we get?" I personally love Americans. I mean, I know this is
a huge generalization, but I genuinely, genuinely
love, like, the American spirit. There's something that I've seen in most
Americans that I met, or at least a huge chunk
of Americans that I met to make a generalization like
this, especially in the West, like people in the
states just seem to have this, like, natural confidence
in themselves, you know? Like, they live and let live. Like, this idea of
individual freedom is so, like, it runs so deep in the American mindset
generally speaking. And I just love that because Europeans don't have that as much. These two colors together, right? That's nice. Speaking of clothes, if you're looking for a really cozy hoodie or t-shirt with some very
cool messaging on it, this is my merch. You can find the link in
a description box below. But I love it. I love being able to wear this. It makes me feel brave. I'm gonna get changed into these outfits to kind of see how they look
when they're all put together. Again, don't judge me. I know it's not a fashion show, but there's something about
looking cute in your outfit that's just gives you that extra little bit
of motivation, you know? So this is gonna be the starting outfit. I'm probably gonna get
changed halfway through 'cause I'll get cold and wet. But look at my socks. I love them. They're so cute. They make my legs look super wonky, but I don't care 'cause
they're really nice. And here, let me just put
the microphone in here, and since it's gonna rain the entire time, or at least half the time. I've got this cute little rain jacket. Oh yeah. Okay, I'm into it. Plant-based Adventures is asking, "How's it going with writing a book?" (sighs) You know, writing a book is the one thing that, like,
keeps me awake at night. It's like one of my biggest dreams in life is to write a book,
and I am working on it, and I now just need to find the time and the motivation to actually write it. So if you want me to write a book, please give me some
encouragement in the comments, 'cause maybe that's what I need. So to answer your
question, it's on my mind. I'm gonna just try one more thing. How about this one? Yeah, this one's a bit
more sportsy, isn't it? What do you think, hmm? What do you think about me
running that ultramarathon? Is it a bad idea? Situation Two, "What do you think free spirits like us will do 50 years from now, like when we will be old?" Great question. I have no idea is the short
answer, but I have hopes. So I think, like, it's very
easy to be a free spirit when you're in your twenties, even, like, in your early thirties when you don't have as many commitments or responsibilities in life, right? Obvious. But I refuse to believe that you have to give up your free spirit in order to, like, settle down, or become an adult, or,
like, have a family. I think you can always cultivate that free spirit within you. And that's what I plan
to do in my own life. I think in 50 years from now, those of us who are now
20, 30, maybe even 40, in 50 years from now, our lives will look very different from the generation of our
grandparents, I believe. I mean, the world is changing so fast, we don't even know what's coming for us. The point is, I think we have tasted a
very different kind of life. We have tasted very
different possibilities of what we can do with our lives. And I really hope that if you feel like you have
that free spirit within you, that you don't for a second
believe the narrative that you have to crush it or suppress it in order to grow up. No, I think those are one of
the best people that I've met have been older people who have cultivated their
free and wild spirit and who are still doing amazing things well into their seventies,
and eighties, and even beyond. I once ran a marathon with a guy who was, like, in his late eighties, who was running a marathon in
every country in the world. Yeah, in his late eighties. What a superstar. That's who I wanna be when I grow up. Okay, I think it's time to start packing because I gotta leave in about an hour. I question from Shines, "Confidence, how? I can never even go on
a holiday by myself. Any advice? And where
you always like this?" Wow, that's a really
big and loaded question. So I think let's start by
talking about confidence. I think you just. What works for me is not
picturing everybody naked, it's none of those tricks
that you hear from, like motivational speakers. I think what, for me,
what it boils down to in terms of being a confident
person is being optimistic. Like, I wasn't always optimistic. When I was a teenager, I think
I was more of a pessimist. I had a hard time believing
that things will work out for me because I was in a bit of a, I had a hard time growing up. Let's just put it that way. I moved to a completely
different country when I was 12. I moved from Poland to the UK. I barely spoke the language. I was living in a house with
someone that I really hated and I couldn't wait to move out. I went through a lot of
mental health struggles when I was a teenager, and I think I was, I just, yeah, I struggled to believe that things would work out eventually, and I think paradoxically, that's what made me a very
optimistic person in the end because I did manage to
get out of that, you know, really painful living situation and turn my life around in some ways, and ended up living a life that I absolutely love every single day. So I think what it boils down
to with confidence is, for me, just being an optimistic person. You know, when you believe
that things will work out, when you believe that life is great and it's worth living, then I think naturally
you become more confident because, well then why wouldn't you? If you're an optimist, then almost by definition,
you have to be confident. Does that make sense? You know, with this ultra race, I was like, I went through
a whole mental journey, a whole mental journey. When I found out it was gonna rain, I was like this close to withdrawing. I was like this close to being like this, I don't wanna run in the rain. This is gonna be my second
100K race in the rain. I don't wanna do it. And then I woke up the next day, and I was like, "This
is why I have to do it." I was like, "I'm not gonna
let this stupid rain stop me. I gotta do it, I gotta
do it, I gotta do it." So here we are. (Eva grunts) Goodbye. Emma Tan is asking, "Anything new in your
romantic life?" (laughs) Vilk is like, "It's me. I'm her romantic life." Get out of here. Yes, there is much new
in my romantic life. I've actually been toying with the idea of doing intentional celibacy for a year. Like intentionally, deliberately
going celibate for a year, rejecting all romantic, physical, all kinds of non-platonic relationships. And you can hear a little
bit more about that decision, what led me to it, and how
I kind of see it happening on my other channel Unplugged. I'm gonna link the video up here somewhere and also down below into
the description box. So if you're interested,
go and check it out. All right, I'm gonna go pack Vilk's food and some of the fuel that
I'll be using on my race. Traveling on the Go is asking, "Do you recommend hiring a
team to produce better videos?" It depends on the stage of your YouTube journey, I would say. So if you're just starting out, like when I was six years ago, I do not recommend investing
heavily into hiring a team. I think if you're just starting out, it's really good for
you to dive in real deep and learn all the skills that maybe eventually other
people will have on your team. Like, you know, when I started out, I was doing all the
filming, all the editing, all the mundane, and all
the fun stuff all by myself. So I learned how to do all those things. And then, when, you know,
someone came on my team, I was able to kind of, like,
tell them what I wanted, what I was expecting, and I had a good idea of what that would even mean and entail. However, if you are at a
stage of your YouTube journey where you're already making money, where the channel is paying for itself, or you can afford to hire a team and where you can see that, you know, your ideas are working out, then sure, go for it, 100%. First identify what's taking
up the most of your time that you could delegate to
someone else, and go from there. One to Beer Travel is asking, "What one piece of advice do you have for people just starting off
the vlogging adventures?" Number one, decide why you're doing this. Like, are you vlogging to keep your family and friends updated, or are you vlogging because you wanna make that
your job, your lifestyle? Like, figure out what your
goal is and go from there. And, you know, if your goal is
to make that your lifestyle, make that your job, if that's something that
you wanna do for a living, then I would say the most important thing is to ask yourself, "What
can I offer to the world that hasn't been done yet in
the capacity that I can do it? What is the new thing that
I can bring to YouTube and to people," right? Go from there. The meat, or me? Aw, thank you. You're so cute. So the reason I'm bringing all of his food is because I'm gonna go run that ultramarathon in the mountains, but we're also gonna stay in
the mountains for a few days. We're making it into a whole trip. Okay, now I'm gonna pack
my fuel for the race, which is going to consist of nuts, tasty dates, energy gels. Next question. Mr. G is asking, "How did you
learn to train Vilk so well, and do you work with him daily?" Yes, Vilk and I train daily. Every single day. No fail,
sometimes twice a day. I get a lot of compliments
on his training, which is really nice, and that's definitely encouraging to see. But there's no one way that I trained him. I explored so many different ways, so many different routes of training. I worked with a couple
of different trainers in the US and in Poland, and, you know, I think, like, the most important thing at the end of the day is training a dog that's in front of you. You know your dog best. I can't tell you how to train your dog because I don't know your dog. I don't know what he or she
responds to the best, right? But also the second most important thing, and I think this probably
applies to all dogs, especially ones that you
have from when they're small, is playing with your dog. Because I found that playing
with Vilk every single day, like 15 minutes, half an hour a day, is the thing that made our
relationship so strong. So I play tug of war with
him, I play ball with him. We're playing always all the time. That's how I've taught him
everything that he knows is through play, that's made recall easier,
that's made heeling easier, that's made being in public places easier. I'm not saying Vilk is
a perfect dog, he's not. We're currently working on, you know, his reactivity to other dogs and kind of making sure that
he knows how to stay calm when there's other male dogs around. And that's a little bit hard, you know? 'Cause he's an intact
male and he's a teenager, but we're working on it. So I would say, yeah, train
the dog in front of you and establish a foundation by just having fun with
your dog, playing with them. Okay, I'm all packed, so it's time to go. I have, like, a five-hour
drive ahead of me all the way to the mountains. So I'm gonna answer some
more questions on the way. You wanna go? You wanna go? Where are we gonna go? Huh? Let's go. (slow rhythmic music) You ready? I think you're ready. The next question is from
Diana, who is asking, "Do you ever get lonely?" And the simple, straightforward answer is, I don't really get lonely. I don't know what it is exactly. I can't quite pinpoint it, but I really like being alone, and I love the company of other people. I love hanging out with good people. I love my friends, I love my family. It's not that I'm, like, a loner, but I'm just really happy being
on my own as well, you know? Okay, my next stop is a dog hotel. That's where Vilk is gonna be
staying while I run the ultra. Unfortunately, he can't run with me. It's a little bit too far. And, of course, I can't
leave him on his own because I'll be out
there for about 20 hours. So while we're waiting in traffic, let's check out another question. Maria is asking, "Do you feel
pressure or behind in life because you're not married yet?" You know what? I used to be married, and I think since then
I've come to the conclusion that marriage is not
necessary for happiness or even to have a healthy relationship. It's a formal contract, a civil contract that
we sign with someone, but it doesn't really mean that you're guaranteed to be happy or that your relationship
is guaranteed to be good. So no, I guess I don't
really go by these, like, social milestones anymore to make me feel like
I'm doing well in life. I think the most important milestone that should tell you whether
you're doing well in life is how you feel about your life. There's nothing else that
matters as much, you know? So no, I don't feel
like I'm behind in life. In fact, I feel like life is great. (gentle music) Okay, Vilk has been dropped off, and I'm about to go pick up my race bib. In the meantime, one more question, and this is a good one. Solma is asking, "Where
do you see yourself at 40? Do you think you will
regret not having kids?" Regret is a funny thing. I mean, I don't know if
I can regret something that I never wanted. I'm sure that at some point
in my life when I'm older, I'll have thoughts where I'll wonder what it might have been
like to have had kids. But I don't think I'll regret it because I just know that
my life would've changed so dramatically in so many
ways that I wouldn't have loved that I just can't see
myself regretting it. But in terms of where I
see myself when I'm 40, that's only like seven years away. It's really not that far. I don't know, I guess I just hope that I continue doing things that I love. I hope that I continue to surround myself with good people and good friends, and yeah, continue to just love life. I don't know what I'll be doing job-wise. I might not be doing YouTube anymore. I hope to venture more into
documentary filmmaking. I hope to be able to keep
running long distances and going on adventures. So yeah, more of the same, but bigger and better, so yeah. All right, let's go pick up the race bib. (upbeat music) This here is my race number, and this here is the elevation
profile of this race. The elevation profile,
in case you don't know, is basically a little map
telling you how much climbing and downhill running you have to do. And this race is 96 kilometers, and you're climbing about
five mountains, basically. 5,000 meters elevation
gain, which is just stupid. Okay, one more question. Paper Fingercuts is asking, "Any recommendations for people who are trying to start running? Gear? Training motivation?" Yeah, I would say if
you wanna start running, you need to find your why. Like, why are you trying to start running? And then tap into that as
much as you possibly can. Start slow, don't go sprinting,
you know, immediately. Build up your endurance over time. That means slow and, you know, peaceful
running, essentially. And that just takes a
little bit of time to build. So another thing that I would recommend is finding your favorite
place to go running in. I started out running on roads and I really didn't enjoy that much. I mean, I did for a very short time, and then it got really, really dull. So then I found trails, and running in nature on a
different trail every time just made running so much
more exciting and fun for me. And that's kind of how I
fell in love with running. It was the trails that did it for me, the connection with nature. And by the way, if you do
end up trying trail running, just remember that you're never gonna run as fast as you will on
a smooth road surface. And that is totally fine. That's what trail running is all about. Taking it slow, having
fun, having a great time. I hope that helped. I'm gonna take that advice
to your heart tonight. So thank you for asking a
very pertinent question. The ultramarathon started at 1:00 AM in complete pitch dark, and, you know, there's something
about running in the dark that just makes you feel like you're in such an
amazing state of flow. So we were off to a pretty good start. It was gonna be a very long race, though. Anyway, here's another
question that someone asked. Lord Rubik's P, "Do you still go barefoot or are you done with that lifestyle?" Well, I am running this ultramarathon in barefoot, minimalist shoes, so I guess I am still doing it. Okay, I'm taking it
easy for a few minutes, and Some Class was asking, "How did you get started running ultras?" I guess I just wanted to see if I could run such a long distance. So I signed up for my first
ultra three years ago in Turkey, and that was 63 kilometers. And I ran it, and I really loved it. So that's how I got started. And then I just kind of kept
increasing the distance. And I've done several
ultramarathons by now, but there's still so much to go. My big goal for this year
is to do a hundred mile. It's a hundred miles in one go. I know, it sounds ridiculous. Anyway, there's a bit of an uphill, so I'm just gonna keep walking. I know that to most people, running an ultra distance
might seem totally crazy, but there is something
so liberating about it, so simple and pure, and I just absolutely, absolutely love it. Anyway, Meg and Flaherty asked me, "What's your advice
for a 22-year-old woman about to embark on her first solo trip?" My answer is just go, just do it. It's gonna feel scary
and awkward at first, but you're gonna make it. It's gonna be the start of a
very new journey in your life. And I'm not just talking about travel. After 18 hours, I finally
made it to the finish line. 96 kilometers, 62 miles, a crazy amount of elevation. But I made it. I made it. Wow. I really love running, trust me. But I'm also super happy to
be back from that whole trip and just in one place for a little while. Anyway, we've got a few more questions that I want to answer from you guys. And Maria's Tour was asking,
"Is Everest on your list? Next mountain to climb?" It's a really interesting
one because, you know, I am very tempted to go
climb a very tall mountain. I mean, I've done the tallest mountain in South America, Aconcagua. I've done Kilimanjaro,
tallest mountain in Africa. I've done the tallest mountain
in Antarctica, Mount Vinson. And quite possibly, later this year, I'll be running up the
tallest mountain in Australia. But Everest. You know, I really love the
idea of climbing Everest, but I don't love the reality of it, which is that you have
to have help, right? You can't do it as a solo project. Really, the way that Everest works now is that it's very, very commercialized. You have to go with a group,
which can be fun, okay, sure. But you also have to go with
guides, you have to, like. It's a whole, it's very commercial. And, you know, I think I just really love the purity of being able to run
long distances on my own, using only my own strength,
and power, and endurance, not having to rely on anyone else. So I have a feeling that even though I would
probably really enjoy the climb, I might find myself really not enjoying the kind of commercial aspect of climbing bigger peaks. But who knows? If the right opportunity arose,
I would probably take it. So call me out on it if I ever end up climbing Mount Everest. It is a Sunday morning,
I got my coffee ready. Oh my God, I love Sunday mornings. Okay, Theo is asking, "Do you
have any guilty pleasures, like trash TV or unhealthy food?" Oh, I have so many guilty
pleasures, you guys. So my favorite food is pizza. And I guess that would get
classified as a guilty pleasure. My other favorite food is ice cream. So there we go. And yeah, I am. I really love watching "The
Office," the American "Office." It's like my favorite show. So I will usually sneak in like an episode or two every couple of days 'cause I just find it
so fricking hilarious. So good. If you're an "Office" fan, let me know. And one last question for this Q&A. It's Charlene is asking, "Where do you imagine your future house?" More on that in the upcoming episodes. So I'll just give you a
tiny little sneak preview. I have been in negotiations
about some land and some other cool things
for a little while now. I haven't been able to talk about it because, as you can imagine,
it's pretty sensitive, and, you know, and I also
don't wanna jinx it in a way, but the house or living situation that's
coming up in my near future is, I'm not gonna tell you just yet, but it's really exciting,
and it's about to happen, and in a few weeks from now, you'll get to see it. I'm so excited to share it with you guys. I hope you enjoyed this Q&A. Thank you for all the questions, and I'll see you in the
next video. (squeaks) (gentle music)
