Blogs

I have a mortgage. I’m too old. I’m not going to throw away my career. I’m used to my high income. I can’t do that. I want to live in a bigger house. My time will come. These are not facts. They are protection mechanisms. Your brain loves certainty. Predictability. Control. So the moment you feel something that lies outside of that, your mind starts talking. Not to stop you. But to keep you safe. Only… safety and growth rarely live in the same place.

We were super happy. There was no crisis. And neither of us had ever spoken about emigration. But underneath all those logical thoughts was one simple question: What do we want now? Not based on five years ago. Not on everything we had already built. Not from the fear of “throwing something away.” Just: what feels right in this moment?

In Spain I often joke:“In Dutch I’m hilarious, in English I’m funny, and in Spanish… just nice.” It sounds lighthearted, but it touches on something real: it’s incredibly hard to be yourself in a new language and culture. You think you’re starting with a clean slate. New place. New language. New you. But no. Because wherever you go, you simply bring yourself along. With all your patterns, doubts, beliefs, and old baggage. It feels like you can start again. But you don’t a