Just like that cycling past mushrooms and through leaves tumbling down in autumn.

It’s a weird feeling: doing something for the last time. In less than 11 days I will be flying to Nepal and so I have already started to say goodbye to things, hobbies, people& places… Some I will see again, of course, but some things will reach an end. Now that I’m leaving, I can name a thousand reasons to stay. I realise how much value and joy I find in things that already surround me. It’s not as if I’ve never realised this before, it’s just that I realise that I will say valuable things goodbye. It feels somehow unnatural. I choose to leave a (almost) perfect life to go and discover unknown places.

Life is about growth, look around you, nothing in nature is standing still, nature is always moving, evolving, changing. Change is difficult or at least weird until one finds some new (or old) familiarity. If the environment is not likable, change might be easier. People who may travel because their current environment is not in their favour. Those are the cases of people traveling to “run away or escape” from their normal reality. I believe one should be happy or find happiness (of some sort) any place, any time. My reality makes me very happy and yet I also choose to go away and pursue my dream to travel whilst following my passion to train, coach and inspire. “The grass is always greener on the other side” got a new personal meaning; I think that colours tend to shine brighter when I start moving, they blend into a beautiful landscape making me realise what I have, that I’m moving and where I can always go back to.

My mum had to cry the other night. I kind of forgot that my parents will have to miss me too, because of my (selfish?) decision to travel. My mum told me that of course she supports me, but the idea of me being so far away scares her. She kept on thinking about all the bad things and people in the world. To be honest, I haven’t given that any thought. I developed my anti-bad-things-in-the-world protection as a kid. When I started to become aware of the bad stuff in the world and I started having nightmares about burglars on my balcony next to my room, I created my own tool to deal with those things. I simply told myself: if it happens, it happens… until it does I don’t have to worry because well… I can’t decide everything that happens to me so there you go, what happens, happens. Anyway, I talked with my mum and blamed her for raising us too well to conquer the world on our own. I am happy where ever I am and therefor I can travel the world, I want to see everything, experience everything!

And of course, I will be scared again when I’m away. When I went to South East Asia, I sucked at backpacking (in the beginning at least). I had cried for days and when that stopped I still cried at nights when I was alone. I had never felt so alone before. And while I was scared, I had frightened my parents even more! Imagine that your daughter calls you in tears from a crappy hostel in Bangkok… they thought they had allowed me to travel to my death hahaha. Luckily like I said, they raised us well, and I managed. I wanted to manage, I had too! I believe that there will always be challenges, I could run away but the next challenge, what would I do then… So I decided to deal with it and myself and be happy in the city where I felt soooo bad. The second time in Bangkok, I had grown immensely, I freaking owned the city! The feeling of being alone and being scared was worth it. And now I’m going to Nepal, a totally different trip and people and places, and I’ll probably run into challenges again too. I promised mum that I’ll be okay and she said she knows I will be.

Even though I will be all the way in Nepal I always find so much support in people around me and friends far away. Talking about support, I want to really thank all my sponsors so far! B&B de Hofnar in Maastricht supports me too! My mum used to work there and the owner knows the beauty of traveling and of people. I’m also so grateful for all my friends that sponsored me or supported me in other ways. I hope that through these blogs, I can take my friends, family and sponsers with me on this amazing trip!