In 2010, I came to New York together with my sister and my uncle for a city trip.
It was a trip listed very high on our to-do list and we were all super excited about it!
One night, we were walking around in West Village, we saw a town house for sale.
It was one of those brownstones.
My sister and I looked at each other and joked:
‘Let’s buy it, so we can always come back to New York!’
We didn’t end up buying it, but right there I made myself a promise.
To come to New York for 1 year, just to live here, to experience what living in New York does to you as a person.
We went back home and got back into our routines of work and life.
I had an amazing boyfriend at that time. We lived and worked together in The Netherlands and our lives were pretty stable.
My nomad soul started to rumble again after 2 years, the rest of the world was calling me. We looked into working on private yachts for the wintertime but a great opportunity for my boyfriend came up and we decided to stay in The Netherlands.
2 years later, my head started spinning around again. I was getting anxious about the future, felt like the time was going too fast and nothing was happening.
Traveling and moving to New York was still my biggest dream.
So when my boyfriend came home one night, he told me:
‘Ann, I know that we both will be very happy, but it won’t be together.
I know you have this dream of going to New York or to move abroad.
I think it’s time for you to start chasing your dreams and don’t let anybody stop you.’
When he said that, I could honestly punch him really hard in the face.
Now, I’m just glad he encouraged me to do so.
Xo – Ann
