365 days, oh what a year

So its been 365 days since I started my trip around the world. I ve been on 15 planes since then. I ve lived in 4 countries, been to at least 3 others. Have made lots of friends from all over the world. Still gives me chills when I think about all the different areas they are in and different things they are going through. Looking at my messenger, probably 24 hours of the day, there are at least 20 people online I could talk to.
Well just to give an example right now I have a friend in Mexiko, where a hurricane hit and I hope she is alright. I have a friend in Indonesia who is working too much and she had typhus a month ago and she is still not taking a break, haven’t heard from her in a while so I m worried. Another friend in Germany has some issues with work and I wish it was going better. Another girl has a sickness, nothing serious but anyways.
Well this list could go on forever, but lets leave it at that.
Its just crazy how within the last year I ve met so many people that now are probably studying at around 40 different universities around the world. If I count my friends from school and the ones I met before, its probably even 100 universities.

I always thought I already had a crazy lifestyle, well the ones reading my blog probably know how I live, but then there is people out there, that are even more insane than me… working and traveling to even more countries in even shorter time….but I ll leave that for another day.

Todays blog should be about the experience of a year. So yes exactly today, 365 days ago I boarded a plane in Frankfurt leaving for Halifax, Canada. I arrived the same day. And that’s when my crazy journey really began. I had been on hundreds of flights before, had visited schools and universities in other countries before, but this time seemed to be like it is a start to something new, or maybe the end to something old. Whatever it might have been, during this year, I ve learned a lot about the meaning of friendship and love. But also disappointment and fear. Living in Canada, Indonesia, Kora and Germany has thought me a lot about people, how to react to them and how to handle them. To be open, but also be careful. There are plenty of people who will brighten your day and show you what its worth living for and then there is many who seem to know its all, but then they don’t really pay attention. Who don’t open their hearts and souls and don’t actually live a life.
My life has been full of excitement, but on the other hand also crazy boring. You might wonder, how can it be boring, never staying at the same place for long. Well you get used to things faster than you think.

In about 5 weeks this long journey around the northern hemisphere will have an end when I board the plane in Seoul and then when I exit the plane set foot on german soil again. The timezones I traveled through have ranged over 15hours. So then finally I will be able to focus on time again, although yet again my friends are in all those different times zones and I will miss so many people at the same time being in so many different places. I ve talked to many people who are jealous of me being able to have this experience.
And yes most of it has been good, but like I said some pain was involved as well. Just to give you an example, what a lot of people don’t understand, my heart now is torn apart into 4 different countries, in 3 different continents around 13000km apart from each other. I have really close friends in Canada, Germany, Indonesia and Korea and even though its been a great time I miss many of them and I know kind of have four lives. And it seems like its been hard for many people to understand that for me its not easy to write everyone an email everyday. I have still been working in all the places I was and I had friends there and most of you will know how difficult it is too accompany all your friends in one country, now imagine you have friends in 4 countries and all of them want a piece of you. I ve always tried to keep in touch, but sometimes I just tore me apart and wore me out, so unfortunately I ve lost some friends.
What really hurts though is that even though I know I want to see all of my friends again and even though I m only 26, probably I wont even see half of them ever again, which makes it really hard to say goodbye.


Ok I guess this blog again went a different direction then I expected, how come this always happens lately? I guess there is so much emotion involved these days. Especially with me going back to Germany and having to pick up the pieces I left behind. To rebuild what I once had, what once used to be mine. I guess Germany was where I lost most of my friends, where most things seem like a Warfield to me and where I have to get back to my responsibilities and stop living the one year holiday life, but finally graduate, and look for a job. Where everything seems to be changed and where everything might seem like a dream.
Even nowadays, there are days, when I wake up and I don’t even know where I am or what I am doing, whats my name, whats the time of day. It’s a really strange feeling, you have dizziness in your head, you can barely sleep, you re sick in your stomach, but the adrenaline keeps you going and life has to go on.

Anyways…with this blog I want to say thank you to everyone that has shared the path with me during the last year and that has supported me, adviced me or influenced me in another way. Its been an up and down year, but its been worth it. Yes I missed out on some things traveling and going away, but I ve also gained a lot. I ve lost many friends and I ve made lots of new. Most of all I ve come a lot closer to my goal of leaving an impression. I just hope in the end it will be good and wherever I left my footsteps, I didn’t just leave tears, but joy as well.

I just figured, this must sound very pessimistic. Don’t worry its not at all. The year has been great and like I said I ve met a lot of new special interesting people, made lots of unforgettable memories and I ve really enjoyed it. I guess its just the uncertainty that awaits with growing up and knowing that this was probably the last chapter of “my childhood” as from now on the real world awaits me.

Ok I should go to bed now, its getting late again ;)
I ll say good night to Asia/Australia , Good afternoon to Europe and Africa and Good morning to North and South America. May you all have a very nice end to the year and may all of you have special day=)