{"id":10896,"date":"2012-12-06T10:44:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T09:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:36:51","slug":"20-years-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/","title":{"rendered":"20 years ago today&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A trip down memory lane\u2026<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2..jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4549\" title=\"Nachtpanorama von Stuggi\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"548\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Funnily enough Sympra\u2019s 20th anniversary actually coincides with one of my own: 20 years ago I came over to Stuttgart. I didn\u2019t know how long I was going to stay; I just knew that I wanted to be here rather than in England for a while. The political situation for graduates at the time wasn\u2019t a happy one: Thatcher had just been toppled from power, the political scene unstable and, more importantly for me, graduates were on a starting pay of about 7,000 pounds a year. <!--more-->After graduating in political science and German studies I was faced with two possible options: Going home to live with my parents and start trawling job pages or come out to Germany and improve my German language skills. An absolute no-brainer! If university had taught me one thing, it was that I couldn\u2019t wait to get out there and really start living! In hindsight, this is of course, quite ironic, nowadays I look back after 20 years of working life and think, I could have actually stayed in the cotton wool of education and begun \u201cmy adventure\u201c a lot later;)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In October 1992, I arrived in Stuttgart with one heavily packed suitcase and a variety of travel bags that my Dan Air baggage allowance had given me. I was going to start working in a well-known language school in Ludwigsburg until I could get myself into my dream job (what that was I had no idea. The only thing I knew was that only <em>I<\/em> could do this job and it was out there waiting for me and me alone). With a flat in the trendy and central west of Stuttgart, the world was my oyster. My flatmate was a Japanese opera singer and I quickly found friends in bars (L\u2019Aleph), clubs (Buddha and Nachtwerk) and cafes (Marche). Out we went every night and every weekend and the only thing I really had to worry about was making it to the supermarket on Saturday mornings before the ridiculously early closing time of 12.00 \u2013 a pretty mean feat when you\u2019ve had about 4 hours sleep! I was having the time of my life&#8230;and thoughts about my dream job were slipping further and further away. When I wasn\u2019t teaching and partying, I was writing. I can truly say that writing has always been my real passion in life. This has always been my constant and has helped me through some challenging times. I\u2019ve always been much happier with a pen (and now laptop) at the ready and somewhere in the back of my mind, I have always known I would be doing myself a pretty big favour if I could get paid for doing something that I wasn\u2019t really that bad at.<\/p>\n<p>20 years is a long time. It is a generation. And to be pretty honest, I don\u2019t really know how I got here. I was a very young adult when I arrived in Stuttgart. We graduate very early in the UK and somewhere along the way I found my way into writing professionally: Firstly by develo<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre-Sympra_110217_rz_Regular-e1342435394295-4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3716 alignleft\" title=\"20-Jahre-Sympra_110217_rz_Regular\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre-Sympra_110217_rz_Regular-e1342435394295-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"55\" \/><\/a>ping my own language programme for the school, then working as a technical editor for a magazine in Hamburg. The path was a bumpy yet adventurous one (isn\u2019t it always?) but here I am working more than I am partying nowadays but definitely looking back at 20 short years in the land of the Swabians!<\/p>\n<p>Bild: room101 \/ pixelio.de<\/p>\n<p>About the author:<\/p>\n<p>Vineeta Manglani, Senior Consultant from 2003 to 2017.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trip down memory lane\u2026 Funnily enough Sympra\u2019s 20th anniversary actually coincides with one of my own: 20 years ago&#8230;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[914],"tags":[1335,1336],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>20 years ago today... - Sympra<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"20 years ago today... - Sympra\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A trip down memory lane\u2026 Funnily enough Sympra\u2019s 20th anniversary actually coincides with one of my own: 20 years ago...Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sympra\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sympra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sympra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sympra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sympra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sympra GmbH (GPRA)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sympra\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sympra_gmbh\/?hl=de\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/sympra-gmbh-gpra-\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/SympraDe\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sympra\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sympra_Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sympra_Logo.jpg\",\"width\":419,\"height\":67,\"caption\":\"Sympra GmbH (GPRA)\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/\",\"name\":\"Sympra\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg\",\"width\":548,\"height\":140},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/\",\"name\":\"20 years ago today... - Sympra\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"20 years ago today&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#\/schema\/person\/4469a3c200f387d6c2bb23d4de2b51c5\"},\"headline\":\"20 years ago today&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":593,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"20 Jahre Sympra\",\"Jubil\\u00e4um\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#\/schema\/person\/4469a3c200f387d6c2bb23d4de2b51c5\",\"name\":\"Sympra\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/author\/sympra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"20 years ago today... - Sympra","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"20 years ago today... - Sympra","og_description":"A trip down memory lane\u2026 Funnily enough Sympra\u2019s 20th anniversary actually coincides with one of my own: 20 years ago...Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/","og_site_name":"Sympra","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sympra\/","article_published_time":"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@sympra","twitter_site":"@sympra","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sympra","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization","name":"Sympra GmbH (GPRA)","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sympra\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sympra_gmbh\/?hl=de","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/sympra-gmbh-gpra-","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/SympraDe","https:\/\/twitter.com\/sympra"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sympra_Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sympra_Logo.jpg","width":419,"height":67,"caption":"Sympra GmbH (GPRA)"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/","name":"Sympra","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg","width":548,"height":140},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/","name":"20 years ago today... - Sympra","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"20 years ago today&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#\/schema\/person\/4469a3c200f387d6c2bb23d4de2b51c5"},"headline":"20 years ago today&#8230;","datePublished":"2012-12-06T09:44:56+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-13T09:36:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#webpage"},"wordCount":593,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20-Jahre_vim_2.-e1354728498321.jpg","keywords":["20 Jahre Sympra","Jubil\u00e4um"],"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/20-years-ago-today\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/#\/schema\/person\/4469a3c200f387d6c2bb23d4de2b51c5","name":"Sympra","url":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/author\/sympra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24422,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10896\/revisions\/24422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sympra.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}