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Hi there, adventurer, let’s talk about my life. Who is Birgit? Who am I? It’s a great exercise to do for yourself. Write down a story about your life. Who are you? Your story can be as long or as short as you like, just try it.
Afterwards, write down the following:
- Three things (or more) you’re grateful for
- Three things (or more) you love about your life
- Three things (or more) you want to do in the future
Now I’m going to talk about who I am. I love to reflect on my life. I do this a lot and it helps me to see how much I’ve changed over the years. It also helps me to reach my goals in life and it makes me feel grateful for what I have accomplished.
I grew up in Bruges, a city in Belgium, and it was amazing growing up there. I had the time of my life, but I always knew there was more in life. I’ve always felt different.
My family and I travelled abroad during every school vacation. We travelled to many countries like Canada, Curacao, USA, Austria, and much more so I learned a lot about the world thanks to my parents and that’s why I love to travel.
Learn to travel, travel to learn
During my childhood, I also did a lot of stuff like going to the conservatory, playing the flute, windsurfing, horseback riding, waterskiing, skiing, etc. there was always something to do.
When I was 17 years old, I met the love of my life and we decided to change everything. Like a lot of teenagers, we experimented in life. After high school I decided to study psychology in Kortrijk, but that didn’t work out like I planned. I was still a kid, even though I was a grown up according to society. Through university I partied, met a lot of new people, I travelled, etc. I was living the dream. Me and my boyfriend wanted to change but that didn’t happen overnight. After a year we decided to live together in Leuven, a student city in Belgium.
A couple years later I got my Bachelor’s degree in Child and Youth Studies, the awesome thing about this education is that it included three internships. My last internship was three months in Surinam, South America, which was an amazing experience. Read about my experience there on the blog No spang in Suriname.
Do you want to know something crazy? My husband came to Surinam to surprise me, together with my family, and he asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes and when I told my family, my mother was like “oh, I know, everybody else already knows it”. My mother was so excited that she told everybody we know, luckily, I had no clue at all. It was the biggest surprise of my life, and I had no idea that he was coming or proposing to me. I was a student and engaged, woohoo, there aren’t a lot of people who can say that.
On the 3rd of March 2018 we married legally in Bruges and the 7th of April we married in Portugal because why not marrying in my favorite country of Europe? It was an amazing day. I wrote a blog about our wedding day in Portugal, which you can read here.
We had our honeymoon in September 2018 in Aruba. It was amazing, truly a fairytale. Thanks to my husband we learned scuba diving in Aruba, and we achieved our Open Water Diver certification from PADI. I wrote a blog about our honeymoon in Aruba and our first diving experience.
In 2018 I also decided to go back to Surinam to visit all the friends I made there. I was overwhelmed with their love and welcome. They hadn’t forgotten about me, and I hadn’t forgotten about them.
I worked two years with children but realized it isn’t something that I want to do my whole life. The first year I worked as a child and youth worker in Leuven. The second year we decided to move to Ghent, and I worked as a residential counselor. I loved my job, and I had the best colleagues! Even though I loved my job and my colleagues, I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted something new, because I’m constantly seeking for new adventures.
Challenge yourself, get lost and grow
My husband and I decided to go for a second bachelor’s degree together. We studied at HoGent (2020-2021) and did an internship in Lyon, France together. I wrote multiple blogs about our adventures in Lyon. We both passed our year and now we have a second bachelor’s degree in ‘International Business Management’.
After studying together, we decided to work together. We did a winter season in Morzine, the French Alps, for almost five months. It was the first time we worked together as a couple, and it went great. It was the perfect way to know if we can work together.
We don’t know where we will end but we know it will be together
My hobbies are currently scuba diving, climbing, skiing, running, hiking, camping and of course traveling. You can read about all our adventures on our blog. I currently went to 39 countries!
Okay that’s my life in a nutshell. Believe me, I could write a whole book about my life, but I’m sure you could do the same. Sitting on my pink cloud most of the days, somewhere around the world.
