Things you leave behind

Friends and family; places you love, places you hate; daily routines, regular activities; the supermarket where you do your daily shopping, the products that you normally buy; the house, room or flat where you live; your roommates, the cleaning schedule; all the social groups you were part off; your old school, university or workplace; good and bad memories; mostly your old habits and your comfort zone.

Leaving behind all of this (especially friends and family) can be quite sad sometimes. But, to be honest, not all of those things were nice things. For me, that especially includes the bad habits that I adopted. An example of this would be overstressing the importance of my studies and work far too much. I was forgetting what life is about, forgetting to connect with people or taking some time for myself. Stepping out of your comfort zone might be frightening. However, I think it is an essential part of self-growth. It is all about finding a balance, and for that, you have to get out there to make experiences.

The first days

Sometimes you might feel lonely, often you are tired because there is so much to do and to discover. Still, I feel like if you keep your head up and approach new things with a positive attitude and open-mindedness everything will fall into place. In my first days in San Sebastian, I met so many people and had tons of interesting experiences. For example, without knowing it I arrived during the biggest city festival called the “tamborrada“.

This festival is absolute craziness. For 24 hours thousands of people dress up as soldiers or cooks and parade the city while drumming all the time. In the course of that day, the drums do not stop (For real, I woke up at 5 o’clock in the night from drumming!). The most amazing thing is that even throughout the strongest downpours which the Basque country is famous for, the Donostians stand their ground and keep on playing. You can really feel the love the people have for their city!

The freedom of detaching

The detachment of your friends and family, social groups etc. frees up a lot of space in your life. With the time you gain you can create new habits, start new hobbies and focus on things you neglected because of the lack of time to spare. It is a new start, a new life because part of you is defined by the people around you and the things you do. Detaching from these things raises an awareness which you can use to evaluate your habits and then either keep them or change them. Sometimes it requires a lot of strength to stay true to your ideals especially if they are not “mainstream”. At other times you can easily discover a new way of life that you prefer over your old one.

A new routine and environment

Faster as I expected a new routine developed. I met lots of new friends with whom I would like to spend time together. I was so lucky in encountering an amazing flat with my lovely, crazy Italian roommates. I found myself in new social groups which I sometimes enjoyed and sometimes not. I also caught myself adopting new bad habits similar to the old ones. Still, I want to use this opportunity to adopt a new way of life which is beneficial to my mental and physical well being. This will require honesty about myself and sometimes hard decisions. Maybe I should not choose the first easiest opportunity that opens up and take a road which seems uncomfortable at first but will pay off in the long-run.