Good stuff

Sometimes you should give up. And sometimes you should endure.
I am glad I endured.

I believe cultural clashes mostly happen inside us, even though it is much easier to focus on what we think is colliding with us from the outside. What I really clashed with was my own vulnerability and my fear of feeling alone.

At home, I do not feel that way. There is so much love there. So many people who show me every day that I matter.
Here, I had to face that inner collision and slowly realize that I am the one who chooses how I feel in a new context.

When I let go of fear, safety arrived. And then I could start meeting the people around me differently. With calm. With a small smile.
I began to see them, and then they began to see me in return.

The language barrier creates a gap, of course. And cultural differences exist.
But I choose to see it as if we have simply lived by different algorithms in our lives. And that maybe it does not matter all that much.

Because in the end, we are human.
I know, it sounds cliché. But it is also true.

We have the same feelings. Social interaction just looks a little different.
And now I have found several favorite people here, and that feels so good. We communicate with our bodies, with our eyes, and with small words in each other’s languages that we have picked up along the way.

And most of all, it is beautiful to spend time with myself and my thoughts.

I am calm here.
In the quiet and in the absence of constant stimulation, something has happened to me. Inside me.

Creativity and the joy of writing have returned.
I have missed it so much, the feeling that the words want to fall out on their own.
Flow.
Desire.

And when I go back home, I will start taking violin lessons.

Longing.
Desire.
Life sparks.

Good stuff.

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