Opportunity waves

So, first of all, welcome back (I’m saying this as well to you as to myself)! It was never my intention on quitting this blogging journey, it started out as a quick break because of lack of time, and suddenly we’re three years on. Being honest, there have been a few times when I wanted to relaunch it, but procrastination really won there. Let’s try to change that. Reminder to all of us: make time for the things you like and have been wanting to do for a long time. Sit down, take a deep breath and kick-off. Once you’ve started, it will flow naturally. Getting started is the hardest part!

As I’ve been off this blog for quite a while, let me do a quick recap from some highlights of the past years. Last time we met, I had just come home from my Erasmus in Madrid.

After that, I completed an eye-opening internship in an event-agency in Brussels, graduated from my studies in Communications and… started a new study. I was motivated ya’ll.

So nothing changed much than before my Madrilenian adventure, except that my new course was in a different university and I changed dorms – everything else was still the same, I was still in the small city where I’d been studying for 3 years and my weekends and summers were still spent at home by the seaside. Back in my cheerful, comfortable life.

But comfort isn’t where you grow, and I knew that.

Since I was about 8 years old, I’ve always said I wanted to live abroad. From the day I heard about Erasmus-programs (which was around 2^ndgrade of secondary school), it was certain I was going to participate, and I was sure I was going to have the time of my life. When the time came, I went to Madrid. Some of you might remember that was both a joyful and tormenting experience for me. Maybe my expectations where to high, maybe I wasn’t ready, maybe a combination of both. Let’s just say it was an emotionally chaotic, but learning semester. Spoiler alert: everything I learned there really got me where I am today – which isn’t far, but still way further than where I used to be -.

At first, I felt like I had failed. I felt like I didn’t live up to the image I had of myself: a free, adventurous soul that could live anywhere and make the best of it and just be happy. Don’t worry, I quickly relativized that thought. I accepted that the person we want to be, isn’t always who we are right now, but that doesn’t mean that person isn’t somewhere inside of us. I realized that my living-abroad-dream might need a second chance, without expectations. Really wanting to know if this just wasn’t cut out for me, or if the first try was just a bitter pill to swallow, I started applying for internships in Portugal – I’d been there on a citytrip a few years ago, and I knew I liked it, which was a motivating thought -. Turns out the odds were in my favor: I was accepted as an intern in an travel- and event-agency in Lisbon and would start my internship in March last year. My semester in Belgium ended in January and I decided to spend my free time before going to Portugal by traveling. No sooner said than done, my best friend and I decided to go backpacking through Japan for a month. Quite an adventure, but I’ll get to that later, I promise.

Now, I can hear you thinking “Isn’t living in Portugal for four months enough traveling for one semester? Why squeeze a trip to the other side of the world in just before leaving?”. I assure you, you’re not alone on that thought, and I get that, but let me explain.

I was riding on this expanding-my-horizons-by-stepping-out-of-my-comfort-zone-wave and if there’s one advice I can give you: once you’re on that wave, don’t you dare getting off early.

We’re all dreamers and we can spend hours wishing for things we would like or imagining a trip or job we’d want. But how many of us actually go after it? Not much.

Why? Because roads to change are bumpy, and bumpy isn’t comfortable. Also: it costs a lot of energy, and we don’t want to put energy in something we don’t know how it is going to be. We’re all afraid of the ‘what if it doesn’t work out, we’ll have wasted all that energy and time!’, but, what if it does?

I’m not at all saying I’m better than people who don’t go after their dreams, just because I went backpacking for a few weeks and did an internship abroad. I’m far from doing what I really want and I’m having tons of dreams that I’m not going after (yet). I just feel like we live in a world that doesn’t allow us much time and space to step out of the normal routine, so if you get the opportunity to get a step closer or check off a bucketlist point, you shouldn’t let that moment pass.

Yet, as egocentric as we humans can be, we mustn’t think that the way some of us want to live life, is the way we all should live it. We shouldn’t forget that some of us just really like the idea of something but don’t feel the need to pursue it, some of us are trying and taking baby steps towards their goals, and some of us are just comfortable and happy where they are. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I even admire it and I’m cheering for everyone, in whatever situation they’re in. I’m just saying that I’m the kind of restless person that doesn’t like getting too comfortable, if I know that there are still unpursued dreams in my head. Gotta blame my momma for raising me this way.

For those of you who are like me, I came across a topic a few weeks ago and I found it quite interesting: the law of attraction. Basically, it says that when you think positively, you’ll attract positive things and vice versa, if you think negatively, you’ll attract negative things. It’s a theory you can expand way further, and even apply to our goals and dreams. It says that if you think of your goals and dreams every day with a positive attitude, you’ll start attracting opportunities to get closer to this goal. That’s actually very understandable, because when you think about something that often, you conduct yourself to start brainstorming about how you can make it work and that will (unconsciously) open your mind for signals and ways that can help you reach that goal. It’s so simple, yet I strongly believe it can be a big help, because in the end, it’s all about having the right mindset.

Anyway, I’m getting quite off-topic here.

So, I went backpacking through Japan which was amazing, I went on an internship in Portugal for four months which was equally amazing. I am so thankful for both experiences even though they were very different from one another.

Japan broadened my mind on traveling and cultures in general, but also reminded me how much I enjoy spending time in nature and be amazed by cultural heritage.

Portugal was wonderful. I made very good friends from all over Europe with whom I could spend as well the good and the bad days – that might sound weird to you but being able to spend your bad days with people you haven’t even known for a month isn’t that obvious, it’s involves a great portion of luck and right vibes -. I had quite some time to travel over the weekends and explore what the amazing things this country has to offer. The weather is a dream, the food is heavenly and let’s not forget the cheap wine and cocktails. I received a great deal of visitors from my home country, which made me value the power of real friendship and tight bonds even more. I dug up my Brazilian Portuguese which was somewhere in the back of my head and mixed it with European Portuguese. And, last but definitely not least, I enjoyed my internship a lot and adored my colleagues. Note to all of us: never underestimate the importance of having great colleagues. You spend more time with them than with your family or friends, so they have quite a big impact on your day-to-day life. Might as well cherish them while you can.

Of course, I knew it wouldn’t last forever. When my internship was over, I came back to Belgium and graduated from my studies in Events. I spend my last summer as a lifeguard (which still breaks my heart saying it), moved out of my elderly home at the seaside to a house in – in my opinion – one of the prettiest cities of the country, with a great young spirit. I found a job and started what they call ‘grown-up life’.

Therefore forgive me I didn’t blog in these past years. I had a lot of exciting things going on.

So here I am, reviewing my life and nostalgically writing about it at three in the morning on a weeknight of my (comfortable?) life as it is now…

I surfed this wave of expending-my-horizons-and-stepping-out-of-my-comfort-zone neatly. It wasn’t all fun and games, the road was bumpy, some days I was out of energy, but it did work out very well. And I wouldn't have known that if I didn't try, right?
So for those who want, grab a surfboard and let’s paddle out for the next wave.