Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 12
sustainability drive. She promptly
got the position and moved to
Johannesburg. “I don’t have anything
negative to say about working in
corporate,” she says, “because of the
creative nature of our team and what
we were building in the sustainability
division.” Her role at Growthpoint was
multifaceted and involved curating
events and speaking along with her
other responsibilities.
Despite her success, the journey
to this point wasn’t easy. Throughout
her high school years and well into
her early corporate career, Kloos had
been struggling with something that
is often overlooked. In high school,
Kloos was diagnosed with depression,
which was still relatively taboo at
the time. Not many teachers and
schools knew how to help students
– especially young women and girls
– who were struggling with their
mental health. Kloos was prescribed
medication when she was a teenager,
which she continued taking into her
adulthood.
“Throughout my time in
Johannesburg, I was unable to escape
this feeling of claustrophobia.” For
Kloos, there was still a lingering
feeling that things in her life were not
quite right. That’s when the idea to
do something completely different
materialised. “Kilimanjaro came to
mind out of nowhere. I hadn’t really
climbed any mountains before
then.” Once the decision was made,
there was no going back – this was
something she needed to do on her
own, for herself.
A few months after climbing ‘Kili’,
as Kloos affectionately calls it, she
climbed another peak in Chile. “It
showed me who I could be because
it stripped the layers.”
This is the point that changed
everything for her. “Adventure in
general strips you down, and you
realise how the noise of the real world
can be so draining. It’s the small,
beautiful moments that make life
magical,” says Kloos. It was the first
time that Kloos felt connected to her
authentic self. She decided that she
would become the version of herself
that came to light when she was
climbing.
She carried on working at
Growthpoint in Johannesburg for
another year after first climbing
Kilimanjaro. For a while, she
continued living her life as she
normally would. But now there was
something that she could hold onto –
a feeling that would call her back to
the mountains again and again. “Out
in the mountains, there’s a sense of
clarity that comes over you,” she says.
She thought about how to translate
“ADVENTURE IN GENERAL STRIPS YOU
DOWN, AND YOU REALISE HOW THE
NOISE OF THE REAL WORLD CAN BE SO
DRAINING. IT’S THE SMALL, BEAUTIFUL
MOMENTS THAT MAKE LIFE MAGICAL.”
ISSUE 2
DECEMBER 2 025
10
