As I write this I am 25 years old, I have only experienced four years of my twenties and have another five to go. I will share what I have learnt and experienced in my journey so far. I hope this article helps anyone that may need to read this. Let us begin!
Firstly, let us talk about nostalgia. I sometimes catch myself reflecting on past childhood and even adolescent memories when I realise I am a young adult. Where has the time gone? I ask myself, it seemed like just yesterday when I was 14 years old and talking to my dearest friend in the school parking lot after school. We would sit and dream about what life would be like after high-school, all that we would have the freedom to do and the beautiful thought of finally being able to lead our lives at our own accord. When I think about situations like this I smile and see how naive I was at the age of 14. Yes, freedom comes with adulthood but bear in mind responsibility is also the passenger in the back seat of the adulthood wagon!
Having been born and raised in Zimbabwe, I always dreamed of leaving the country (as the economic situation was and still is dire). Upon completing high school I was blessed (and am forever grateful) to have had the opportunity to move abroad to the UK. I was now in a foreign land. I was away from my immediate family, friends and all that I had ever known from the small town of Bulawayo. This is the point in my life when I truly grew up. There was no mother to cook dinner for me or buy the groceries – every responsibility that seemed effortless when growing up was now on my shoulders. I was responsible for myself for the first time in eighteen years of life. Reflecting now on the period of time I was in the United Kingdom (only fifteen months) I think I handled the situation well – given that I was miles away from home, beginning university and legally ‘an adult’.
Life happened and I transferred directly to a university in the Netherlands to commence my second year at the age of 20. The culture shock I experienced in the UK was tripled upon arrival in the Netherlands. Bicycles every, a language I could not speak – this was certainly uncomfortable. Here I was all alone, in a new place yet again. I am currently still residing in the Netherlands with September 2020 marking my fifth year living here. I will forever thank the universe (despite how/ when/ if my journey of life in this country will come to a close) for placing me here. I have faced uncomfortable growth and have become extremely independent – I now know that I can go anywhere in the world alone and although things will be hard in the beginning (as they usually are when being in a new place) I will survive and most likely thrive.
This short summary of my early adulthood will be continued in my next written post as you (the reader) and I reflect on the process of living…
Planting Soul Seeds 