A new start: Switzerland

Mountains

It’s been 9 months since I returned home after 3 adventurous months of travelling New Zealand. An experience of a lifetime. Some people talk about ‘’finding themselves’’ once away, or finally getting to know what they truly want. I guess I lost myself.

But I was sure it was just a little time I needed to get used to the Netherlands again, to feel at home and to get my things sorted out. So I got the job I’d always wanted, started to train for what I always wanted to accomplish. Started studying math to get myself into that master’s degree that would eventually get me where I wanted to be. Because that’s where I wanted to be, right? When one of my best friends asked me about that while I visited Switzerland, I could not answer her.Not even myself.  What I could do, was wander around in silence across a soundful stream, with mountains around making me feel smaller then ever. I let nature sink in, like it did in New Zealand. Because every time I get to see nature so purely and mountains so impressing, I find my heartrate to drop, my mind to calm down and my smile to grow bigger then my cheeks can handle. I realized the mountains had been calling. And that it’s not a job, a triathlon or a master where I wanted to be, but the mountains. Listen to that little voice inside Elsi, is what I told myself to. So here I am, starting over – in Switzerland!

‘’With each inbreath the traveller feels that he is taking the whole mountain into himself. With each outbreath his body and soul dissolve into it. He feels endlessly, boundlessly good and totally, absolutely at home’’.

This quote is from Christope André, talking about contemplating in his book mindfulness. It is also the exact description of what I feel as soon as I reach another summit, surrounded by mountains instead of cars, people or cities.

But to have guts and to actually use them are two different things.  There’s no way that I could make a list of pro and cons to decide whether to go or not, because all points are valued differently and therefore not comparable. At all. What terrible human would simply leave its beloved family and friends? Why would you voluntarily struggle with learning a new language – let alone to learn a nations’ jokes? (Which is probably the most important thing in my life: bad jokes). Also: why would you NOT go live somewhere you feel intensely happy by just looking out of the window? Why NOT take a chance and find out how far you may come – I’m already the only one laughing about my jokes anyway. Taking this step scared, still does scare, the crap out of me. But that’s exactly why it's worth it. 

I left behind a lot back home. Let’s go #getoutside now. In the next couple of months I will try to keep you updated on my life here in Switzerland, which ofcourse still involves working as a physio and maybe even thinking about a master's. But more importantly is my time off: which I get to spend in the mountains! Whuuhuuu!