10 years

10 years ago, on August 2nd, 2000, I got off an airplane in Kansas City and there begun this big adventure I have been living ever since. At that time, it seemed just like a big adventure. Little did I know that everything else that were to follow in the next 10 years would be so completely shaped by the decision to start that journey on a hot and humid August day.

Oh, I was so young, just about to turn 17. And so naive. With expectations and dreams that were in a way so unrealistic. And in a way, so many of them have come true since. I have changed a whole lot since that day - might have even grown up - but I am happy to say that I remember exactly how I felt then. So much to look forward to, so excited and yet so scared and homesick. Today, I am no longer scared and have found many other homes in the world besides the one I grew up in. I am still excited and looking forward to so much more to come in the next decades. I might be grown up to some extent, but in a way, I am still looking for myself and trying to figure out how to make the most out of this short time we have here. For today, my motto is a sentence I read in a book:
"You were given life; it is you duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."
Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat Pray Love

And to those who have given me so much help on the way, thank you from the bottom of my heart, especially to my second family who have given me a home away from home and have continued to give me so much throughout these past 10 years!