Gotta love the hindsight

I was inspired to write this post while I was taking a very relaxing bath. Then I took notes whilst in the bath. Another big chunk of it I jotted down in my notes during a sunset walk on the beach that same day. I finished it after a beautiful morning beach walk.

The morning walk ☀️

So, here we go.

With a life as turbulent as mine, well, turbulent is a big word but I think it may seem turbulent to others at times, it’s always nice to look back at signs I might have missed in the whirlwind and the speed of things changing in my life.

That is a LONG sentence with a lot of elements in it I want to unpack.

So, buckle up. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride.

Haha no, not hell, but you know, it will be a lot to take in.

First thing to zoom in on: "with a life as turbulent as mine"

Whenever I go somewhere new, which is often, I always look for a reason to stay there and it seems like I go through similar stages everywhere I go.

This is my latest example: I moved to Adelaide in October after travelling for 5+ months, living at my parents' place to save money for 3 months last year with the goal in mind to find a place where I wanted to reroot.

I was going to study, find a parttime job and grow a community around myself with like-minded people and learn more about sustainable living and natural healing practices.

I did start a course and I did build a beautiful community around me, but as enthusiastic and motivated as I was, it didn't get me that job.

So, my life got pretty tricky on a financial level. I kept trying, though, because I really believed this is the place I wanted to reroot for a while.

But even though that's what I had in mind, I still moved places 4 times since I got here and got restless everywhere I moved.

I guess that's what I mean with "a life as turbulent as mine". I can imagine how chaotic and exhausting this part of my life might sound to others; being on the move almost constantly, packing up, unpacking, packing up, unpacking, starting over, over and OVER again.

I still thought I was in Adelaide to kick off the "proper adult life". And by that I mean the societal standard, you know: a good and steady job, a traditional relationship, a place to live for a couple of years or even longer.

But just like anything else in life, things didn’t really seem to work out the way I planned them in my head (read: I got rejected 30+ times for jobs I wasn’t even that excited about, which resulted in insecurity about money and I eventually jumped on the dating apps again because who knew, maybe the guy who was going to change my life would magically appear and would give me a reason to stay in Adelaide).

And that was my final attempt to find a reason to stay where I was.

Then got an opportunity in Byron Bay.

Byron Bay beach life 🌴

I worked in this hostel in Sydney back in 2015 and I always stayed in touch with the man running the place. Somehow, I always knew I was going to end up in that company again. It appeared in my dreams quite often too. And when I got desperate for a job, I reached out and asked if he could help me out in any way.

He forwarded my email to a colleague in Byron Bay (who also happened to be a former colleague of mine back in the days) and she reached out with the most lovely email asking me if I was up for a chat.

And to be completely honest: living in Byron Bay has been a kinda sorta longtime dream of mine every since I travelled there for the first time back in 2015. I knew they were planning on building another property of the same hostel as they had in Sydney in Byron a year after I flew home from my adventure and I always kept it in the back of my mind. It just also always seemed a "too good to be true" kind of scenario.

Speaking of hindsight, right?

And even though I wasn’t necessarily planning on moving again, I do believe this was the universe helping me a hand and gave me permission to just stop looking for reasons to stay and just go with the flow.

So the beautiful lesson I learned is that life wanted me here for a reason and a season (or 3) but I am not destined to be here longer than that.

How liberating!!

But the case remains that my life is turbulent and that will not stop anytime soon. If ever. And I am starting to understand why.

Next up: "it's always nice to look back on the signs I might have missed"

Fun fact about me: generally, I am very organised but I never really do a lot of research (if any) before I travel or move to a new place. So, I sometimes end up in very random places for no apparent reason (although, secretly there is always a reason that makes sense to me). This time around, this resulted in moving to a city where I wanted to work in a hostel or hip hotel environment not knowing that there were only 4(!) hostels in Adelaide. FOUR. In the country known for its backpackers' culture and shared accommodation, I chose the city with the lowest POSSIBLE number of work opportunities ever.

And now I hear you think: maybe you should start researching new places you'll go to from now on?

And I will also tell you why I stubbornly refuse to do that:

I did get to know a cool new city I would have never considered moving to and I discovered a new way of living for which I am ever grateful. And I also got nearly a year off work to figure out what was really important to me. It was the best (and slightly expensive and inconvenient at times) school of life ever.

So, what I learned in this specific school of life are these lessons:

• Lesson 1: I want to live near the beach. The question I always asked myself was: do I actually want to live near the ocean or does it just sound nice in my head? And the answer is: Yes, yes I do want to live near the beach for the rest of my life if I can. It's really what I imagined it to be. An ever source of freedom and serenity within 10 minutes.

• Lesson 2: living a simple and minimalistic life really is the only way for me to enjoy the little things.

• Lesson 3: there really is something in community living. It can take a while to find the right fit and it might not be forever (especially not in my case) but it's so worth having a community of like-minded people around you.

I wouldn't want the past year to have happened any other way. These lessons are way more important than the comfort of the seeming security and structure of nowadays society.

And last but not least: "in the whirlwind and speed of things changing in my life."

My life is ever changing. If I reflect on my newsletters and blogs from the past few months I can recognise a trend where I really leaned into making Adelaide my longterm home right before I quite suddenly changed directions again. It did really feel like my roots were being rerooted and that felt good and calm. But I also felt restless.

And then there's the fact that most of my friends are moving out of Adelaide as well. So, it makes sense to me to move on myself

Now I am moving to Byron Bay because I know that's where life needs me. And I love it. Because this is what I'm good at. Accepting and embracing change.

Where I know lots of others get uncomfortable by change, I thrive by it.

It keeps life interesting to not hold on to things too much because there is no way to control any of it. So, just let go and see where the wind takes you.

Speaking of which: I bought a car (for the first time in my life), built in into a little tiny house on wheels, and I will start exploring the actual nomad life soon.

Rangie the Ruby ready for adventures! 🚗

New adventures await.

And a lot of more stories to write as well.

So, stay tuned while I hit the road and ditch the societal chains completely and start living like a wild woman.

Haha. How dramatic.

But, I will probably not shave my legs as often now. So, a little wild is definitely happening.

Anyways, before I loose my train of thought completely, there were a few songs that inspired me in the past few weeks of my life going through these transitions:

This Too Shall Pass - Zen That Beat

Be Like Water - Lo Wolf

Enjoy!

Talk soon.

Xoxo, Domi