Now what? Here I was, on an island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. My mother and aunts had flown home. I was all alone in the silent house on a brand new sunny day that felt in many ways like it was the first day of a new life. What do you do on such a day?

THE VIDEO! Yes. I had thrown a big farewell party. Oh the joy! In the middle of cocktail making, wild dancing and much laughter, I noticed something secret going on. In groups, people disappeared to my bedroom. Curious as I am, I tried to follow them and find out. But every time I was shooed away and someone quickly poured me a new drink.

My close friend Elli dropped by the next evening, took my hand and put something small and cold in it. A USB stick? “Watch this when you are ready. And whenever you need to feel that your friends are always with you, because we are, okay?”

In the tumultuous days after the party I had almost forgotten about the mysterious USB stick. Now it jumped back into my mind. This is the perfect moment! So I sat down on the cold tile floor, put the USB stick into the laptop, and watched, thunderstruck. One by one or in groups, all my friends who were there that night and even friends who could not make it, had recorded their wishes full of love, joy, generosity and gratitude for me. Now I was in a lake of tears, touched by the thoughtfulness of Elli’s idea and all the love.

I stayed for another week on Sao Miguel island. My guncle Andi had arrived with his mother and her partner. We drove around the island and hiked around the volcanic lakes. All three of them are true travelers. Andi has lived all over the world. His mother has hiked up the Himalaya and every possible other mountain she could. Robert has crossed the seven seas on a sailboat he has helped build. The adventure stories they shared over dinner fed my excitement and fueled my wanderlust. 

“Every great move forward in your life begins with a leap of faith, a step into the unknown. 

― Brian Tracy

Then, the day of my flight to Boston had come. I was nervous, which I tried to hide because I was surrounded by very calm and relaxed travelers.

I will never forget looking through that oval airplane window. What I saw was the shoreline of Sao Miguel, and the endless blue ocean. This island was my launch pad, the point of no return. I was acutely aware that this was it: No return ticket and a whole new world ahead of me. The openness I felt was as vast as the endless sky I could see stretching over the sea. The plane accelerated full speed towards the open ocean. Wow, I am really doing this! I had a hard time believing it myself.

Talking about a leap of faith! It means to believe in that what we cannot see beyond rationality, in possibility and potential. I was literally leaping full on, approximately the 280 km/h takeoff speed of the plane, into an unknown new life.