2010
Back in 2010 she was sitting on the couch, strumming her guitar, playing a melody she made up and really liked. She was alone and played this melody over and over again while resting her head on the body of the guitar. Her ear touched the wood in such a way that she became one with the frequencies of the tones. She closed her eyes.
There were no lyrics yet.
A strong longing for change
There was a strong longing for something she couldn’t find in life. Why was life so stressful? Why was everyone always working to live? Why did she always had the feeling of never having enough time to do something she really liked doing? Why was everyone always in a hurry? Why were the days too short and did she always end up with guild, being run-down on the couch with long unfinished to-do lists? Why did everyone celebrate the midts of the week and organize friday afternoon drinks … longing for the weekend? Why did all these traditions exist and most of all: why was she left out if she didn’t want te join?
Emigrate
The phone rang. It was her ex-colleague from that job she used to have at this agency. It brought back memories of those days she spent in an office where everyone was put in one room on top of each other. It had sucked her energy out.
She had learned much, yes she did, but spending her days from 9 to 5 sitting behind a desk …. regularity, deadlines, stress, hierarchy, traditions. Non-stop stimuli.
Nowadays she worked from home, remotely … A big step forward in life but still: deadlines, hurrying, making phone calls, pleasing, and always in search for new projects. At least she wasn’t exposed to so much stimuli no more.
Her ex-colleague told her he was about to emigrate to New Zealand and asked her to play a song at his farewell party. Ofcourse she agreed and she thought: “Gee, emigrating that far?! That is very rigorous…” His motivation to leave the Netherlands: too small, too many people, too bureaucratic, too tight, too sober and more …. He was in search for a new start and that inspired her right away.
Breaking traditions
They hung up the phone and there she was, sitting in silence for a while. She looked outside at the appartments opposite hers. Luxurious, spacious apartments, all stacked on top of each other.
It was about 7.30 pm and she suddenly saw that in all living rooms the TV was on. And when she looked closer they were all tuned in to the same program! It was such a strange perception and suddenly it came to her: you don’t always have to emigrate to turn your life around. You just have to start to change yourself! You just have to start within. Who are you? What do YOU want? What are your own beliefs? Not the ones from TV, parents, friends or whoever?
At that moment she decided to dare to be herself and to break traditions. No matter what. Friendships would perish, relationships would break, and new paths would be opened.
And so she started singing:
