The author said she moved abroad for adventure and a new lease on life. She realized she had forgotten to change some of her habits along the way.
Courtesy of Carmen Esselink.
Nine days into 2025, I stood at gate G7 in Amsterdam waiting to board my flight to Cape Verde to build a nomadic life on my own terms.A year and a half later, strangely enough, I'm still here. The temporary adventure turned into a life, complete with friends, routines, and a man who, after nine months, still isn't ready to call me his girlfriend.None of it was exactly planned.I needed a new pathAfter another dating failure, a stalled job, and a roommate moving out, I felt stuck on the traditional path that includes a career, a mortgage, and maybe marriage, and more. It was a path I wasn't even sure I wanted.Meanwhile, friends around me seemed busy making things permanent: getting engaged, buying houses, merging lives and bank accounts, and having kids.Naturally, I choose the opposite: unsettle. I quit my job, moved out of my apartment, ditched many of my belongings, and left. I was after an adventure, but somehow I ended up staying at the first stop I made: Cape Verde.
The author said she was still drawn to the same types of people, even though she had changed many other things.
