Who would have thought that this was a nice year to move between countries?
What a year this has been, each person must have a hell of a story to share about this year, so here is mine!
It all started in Argentina where I was spending my summer holidays (well summer in Argentina, winter in Europe), while anxiously waiting for the Spanish Visa to be approved. Something that finally happened on my second week there, so thankfully I had the opportunity to celebrate this in person together with my family and friends, who carefully supported us during the process of moving from the Netherlands to Spain.
Far from being an easy thing, making up this decision was quite difficult! Especially since lot of people were telling me I was taking a step back on my career by doing so, but we decided to trust our instincts and feelings. Well, I am glad we did, because we could not be happier now, weather and social life mad a big difference for us.
When we were about to return to Amsterdam from Argentina, the pandemic started to hit, and what we all know happened! Our belongings were shipped to Barcelona on a Monday and our flight was canceled on a Friday within the same week at the end of March, thus we ended up locked down in Amsterdam without our things for more than 3 months. It was difficult at first, but it also helped us learn to live and survive in a simpler way, and since the confinement was not that strict in Amsterdam, I was able to use running as a way to de-stress myself from my anxiety.
But it wasn't just bad news. As a side effect of this situation I started to read and write a lot, I joined various development communities, where I was able to learn from other experiences and contribute to helping others in many different ways, which made me realise that coaching is something that I can enjoy (It may be because I can offer the support and help that I didn't have at the beginning of my career). Most importantly, I demystified developer communities that I thought were always full of self-centered, competitive developers who put others to shame.
It was July 2020, just after the first wave of the pandemic, when we managed to catch a flight to Barcelona, with our little backpacks full of illusion and dreams to get to know the city where we always dream of living.
The pandemic did not help, but looking at the bright side, walking around Barcelona without tourists was an extremely pleasant opportunity to experiment, plus the real estate market was not as crazy as usual, which allowed us to find a nice apartment.
So here we are, still on the starting line of this new journey, and like all of us waiting for the pandemic to end so we can feel free again.
Stay safe!
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