Life Update: Big Changes

Long time no blog! Time for a life update. Remember me? It’s OK if you don’t, I’ll forgive you (this time). Busy times and crappy internet connections means I haven’t been blogging much at all. It’s made me pretty restless. But let’s be real, there’s no use for excuses. I will be regularly blogging again starting right now, beginning with some explanations about why keeping in touch hasn’t been top priority lately.

Life Update: Big Changes

First of all, the most important life update: I finally graduated, woohoo! It’s been a tough three years, there’s no denying, but I’m proud of myself for having followed through until the very end. I’m also quite happy about how my thesis turned out, which was genuinely important to me. I wanted to properly finish my time at university college and I feel quite accomplished! On the other hand, I also realise a bachelor’s degree is only the start of an academic career. I still have some projects running and I do plan to pursue a master’s degree somewhere in the near future, but I haven’t decided which direction to go into next.

Moving House

Since graduation was going to take place on June 30 and I had exams planned up until June 25, there was also still another little detail that needed to be taken care of: my dorm room (left). I had been living on campus for the past three years and all graduating third-years were now kindly asked to leave. Naturally, there was a lot of moving-of-furniture-and-other-accumulated-crap to do within the span of only a few days. Thankfully, my parents came to the rescue! We managed to shove everything into two cars and an extra utility trailer, after which I took a few minutes to say goodbye to my army of silverfish. We also briefly celebrated my 22nd birthday somewhere in the middle of the process. A few days later, instead of settling into my new room (spoiler alert), I found a temporary home in Beijing!

Summer School in Beijing

Yes. As you can see, I wasn’t kidding. That’s me at the Great Wall! O-M-G (so fetch). Only a few days after graduation, I set off to China to attend the BNU (Beijing Normal University) Philosophy Summer School of 2015. After two weeks of daily lectures (also during weekends) and excursions with about 30 other students from several different countries, I can positively say it was an experience of a lifetime. It has only confirmed my appreciation for East Asian cultures and caused my appetite for travel to grow even stronger. I honestly believe travelling and exposure to other people’s perspectives is when my mind really gets stimulated and I truly learn the most. I have so much more to tell you about my time in China, but I will save my stories for my next blog posts!

Back in Breda

So, what am I doing right now? I’ve returned to the Netherlands, settled in to my new room, and am currently on the look-out for a JOB. Or at least something that remotely resembles a paying job. I’m not exactly looking for the perfect full time job that will get me started onto a path towards a full-fledged career (although never say never), but at least something that will keep the costs covered while I’m deciding which master’s degree to pursue. Since this also means I don’t have any obligations in Amsterdam at the moment, I decided to move back to Breda, where finding a new room was a lot easier. I always liked my hometown anyway.

Besides finding a job and a master’s degree, I also want to start putting twice the amount of effort into my blog. I’ve been blogging for about five years but have always had to prioritise other things in life. What I truly want to do in life is being able to explore around the world and continuously create original content. Blogging makes me feel like I’m still working towards that dream! Therefore, I’ve decided to take blogging more seriously in order to create a more meaningful creative platform online. From now on, you can expect to hear a lot more from me!

As always, thanks for reading this life update and visiting my blog. See you soon.

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