The past holidays gave me an ideal time for reflection, time to take a moment to reflect on all that has happened in my life in 2019, and that is quite a lot.
In early January of that year, I returned from Houston, Texas, much earlier than planned, along with my husband. Then first lived in Belgium for a month, and then “remigrated” to the Netherlands in February, after 15 years of absence. Sounds simpler than it is because our house in Belgium was rented, and with the tight housing market in the Netherlands, just find a nice, furnished house for a nice price. Meanwhile, we’ve moved 4 times this year and I’m all over it!
Whirlwind
Not only was it a dynamic year on a personal level, it was also a whirlwind on a business level. I went with the thought of going to America to build my business there but I came up short. America, for many the promised land and during my relatively short stay, my image has nevertheless changed. Meanwhile, I look back on a successful year in which I am just happy to be back in Europe, in hindsight this was the best decision after all. When your husband comes home after a day at work last December and casually says; honey, we are going Holland, our adventure has come to an end in America. That was a bit of a shock for me, I was really devastated.
So beautiful
My America adventure has had much more impact than I thought it would, including the aftermath, the moves, the hassle of mail, insurance, banking and many other things that have happened over the past year. Still, I am very grateful that we took the step, even though t has turned out much differently than expected. Many dream of emigrating, but how many actually realize their dream?
I am happy to be back in my own country after 15 years, sometimes I feel completely at home, sometimes I feel like a tourist and during a train ride, like a child, I look out the whole trip, Holland is so beautiful.
Having a background from the tourism industry as well as the events industry has taught me one important thing (more things but I won’t go into that right now) and that is flexibility. It is an incredibly important trait, I have personally found out now, and especially when I look back at the past year! If I hadn’t had this trait, my year would have been completely different.
2020
Therefore, I would like to say to anyone who would like to emigrate abroad, anywhere in the world, take a good dose of flexibility, patience and resilience with you. Even though my adventure did not go as planned, I learned a lot from it. It has made me wiser, stronger and even more flexible, and I am looking forward to 2020 with great pleasure.
I wish everyone a healthy, successful year with, above all, lots of flexibility.
