I went on a gap year!

After high school, I wanted to think about what I wanted for my future, and most importantly: enjoy life and experience new things. I traveled for a few months with a friend in Europe (hitchhiking, traveling with interrail, volunteering...). And then I kept on my one doing some volunteering and enjoying my time at home. So many fun times!

I went to New York City with my mom, it was our first trip just the two of us.

We went from Belgium to Finland across Germany, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. We took buses until Poland, after that we hitchhiked our whole trip. And let me tell you, it was amazing! We met kind people on the road, had fun joking or blasting music on the side waiting for a car to pass. We visited cities, slept in hostels, or at people's homes. We took the boat from Finland to Germany.

We volunteered at a European program for youngsters in Ljubljana, where we created a light festival with people from different European countries.

We traveled through Great Britain, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Italy with Interrail, hours spent on the train watching the landscape (or sleeping to be able to visit the next city). Seeing all the different cities and atmospheres.

I then went on my own and did a workaway stay on a horse farm in Tuscany, Italy. I spent an amazing month and a half met another volunteer from the US, the hosts were like a family.

The Covid19 arrived and I had to return home a little early. I spent two months at home with my mom I hadn't seen in quite some time. I helped with a boat construction (another workaway).

I spent a month on another horse farm in the south of France, where they raise horses to produce the milk and sell it or make soaps. It was interesting to see another perspective in the horse world.

I spent the most amazing year of my life. I have a head full of memories and I now have a plan for my future. Will it be the same one next year, or in ten years? Maybe not, but that's okay, as long as I am happy in the present.