In the days before my departure, I was very tense. On the one hand, I was really looking forward to the upcoming adventure and the unique time I was going to have, but on the other hand, I was totally tense because I still had a lot to organize. Anyone who has ever made such a trip knows what I’m talking about. Organizing health insurance abroad, reducing all current insurances to a necessary minimum, canceling contracts, changing banks or switching to a special credit card, deregistering with the employment office, deregistering health insurance, etc.. On top of that, I sold my car and most of my furniture and belongings.
A great relief was that I could spend this time with my parents to accommodate everything there and not have to worry about an apartment. Even though it’s incredibly hard when, like me, you’ve already lived independently for over 10 years and have your own ideas about your life. At the same time, I am totally grateful that my family supports me so much in realizing my dream.
Of course, parallel to the organizational stuff, there is the concrete planning of the trip, like the rough route planning, equipment, visas, vaccinations etc.. Since I decided not only to do the tour for myself, but also to take the public with me, several newspaper, radio and TV interviews were scheduled in the weeks before my departure. I also met with sponsors and other supporters of my project. As you can see, I did not get bored. The weeks until the start of my tour were quite busy, exhausting, but also varied and interesting. I learned a lot during this time, made new contacts and developed tremendously.
It was very nice for me that I was able to say goodbye to so many people who were important to me in the last weeks before my departure. I had a wonderful farewell party with good friends and was able to spend a lot of time with my family and my friend Susanne.
During the whole time I was accompanied by ambivalent feelings. On the one hand the gigantic anticipation of the upcoming adventure of my life, on the other hand the feeling of sadness. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean shattering sadness here, but much more a beautiful sadness. The feeling of missing someone because that person is important to you and at the same time feeling that you are completely supported in what you are doing.
“Actually” it was clear to me that over the course of the adventure no woman would fit into my life and I would like to start freely into this adventure. Well, what can I say. For a while this worked for me and then I met Susanne at a personality development seminar.
We got along pretty well right away and there was something I really liked about her. My belief system: A woman prevents me from realizing my dreams and being free, led me to badmouth everything about Susanne to protect myself from getting into a relationship. Still, in the weeks and months after the seminar, we kept spending time together and had many wonderful moments together. Whenever I was with her, I had the feeling of being right, of being seen as I am, and of being fully supported in what I do. So it happened that we fell more and more in love with each other and dared to have a relationship despite all our doubts. And now there was this feeling, which I actually wanted to protect myself from. I am glad to have had the courage to follow my feelings.
