looking back at 2023
December 24, 2023
Yet another year is coming to an end.
And what a year.
Here is a little retrospective of what has been.
Exploring various ways of living and what home means to me has continued to be an integral part of this year. From back to living with my parents for a while, to a nomad in hotels, a housesitting expert, having my room in a Homestay in Indonesia, a room at my sister's family home in Australia, and finally, an apartment for myself in Zürich, with a contract for four months - the longest I've been in a place since Spring 2020.
Ultimately, everywhere felt like home, each with its challenges and positive sides. But one thing became clear: home is where I am.
Let's have a chronological view of what has been in the past 12 months (for each month, I have chosen one picture taken and a keyword to represent it).
It all started in Brazil, and I was unsure where the journey would lead me. And what a journey it has been.
My first year working as a photographer for Artimage in Brazil kickstarted exhibiting my first series of rainforest photography - a perspective unknown to me (there was a total of 4 interior design fairs exhibiting my work this year).
I started a podcast to share the inspiring stories of others (in June, I had to put the project on a halt due to other priorities, but we did launch six stories and perspectives in life that are worth listening to. Check it out.)
Oh, February - an unforgettable nearly 15-day trip to Patagonia with 11 other photographers. Learnings, exchanging, discovering new sceneries, catching mindblowing sunrises and sunsets, and experiencing the harsh Patagonian winds. A trip that has marked a milestone personally and professionally. Here are the logs about the trip and a few photographic outcomes from it.
I spent March in the north of Brazil in Itacaré, Bahia, with my Hotel Nomad hat, documenting the newly opened Chocolate Hotel. It was a unique opportunity to get to know the region and dive into the world of cacao, which plays an essential role in my life. Click here to read more about my experience at the hotel and what I learned about cacao.
I spent half of the month with the family (we are spread worldwide, with one sister living in Australia, another one + my parents living in Brazil, and I spent most of my last 13 years in Europe). It is a rare occasion that we all get to meet at the same time, April was one of these occasions), half of the month packing up my things again and moving back to Europe - back to the storage life (for those that haven't been following my trajectory, before going to Brazil November 2022, since 2020 I had my things in a storage in Zurich while I lived the nomad reality).
A month working as a Guide for Butterfield & Robinson - a luxury travel company offering bike tours and multi-active trips) in the stunning Douro Valley in Portugal. It was a unique opportunity to get to know this beautiful region, which was unknown to me. We had incredible travellers with whom I learned so much and suppliers who made the whole experience possible and exciting. Working as a guide is not an easy task, especially when having three back-to-back trips (the trips last one week, from Sunday to Friday, and a back-to-back is when, as soon as a trip finishes, you are already starting to prepare for the upcoming one 1-2 days later).
The work as a guide involves working long hours, where the customers' needs are your full priority, and you must always be at your best. You must ensure everything runs as it should (and if it doesn't, be good at pretending it has and find ways to disguise whatever didn't go as planned). You're not only a guide, but an enabler of experiences and cultural immersions, besides the occasional psychologist and many times a type of entertainer, making sure the travellers receive the best possible service and can have their trips forever in their memories as a positive and remarkable experience not to be forgotten. Working as a guide is an experience to grow as a human on so many levels and absorb knowledge from various sources (travellers, suppliers and co-guides who bring in a completely different perspective on things, live different lifestyles and share knowledge accumulated in their lifetime).
A month of recovery while homesitting back in Zurich, Switzerland. A month to sleep, realign and reenergize from the year's first few months involved a lot of rich experiences, soaking in information and facing various types of challenges - personally and professionally.
I was invited to document an article about Swiss Silk in pictures for the inspiring Swiss print magazine Transhelvetica - something I had been aspiring to do professionally for a few years. It was a great honour to make the project and be part of their #78 edition about Thailand.
Towards the end of the month, I went back to Portugal for one last trip as a B&R Guide.
After driving back from Portugal and spending a few days in France, I went back to Zürich for another professional rerouting process - planting the seed of a project which occupied me throughout the following months (and is now one of my main focuses - more about that in the November review 😉) and a personal organization of things to move to another location towards the end of the month: Bali, Indonesia.
A new sport, a new world. It has been a while since I have been following freediving videos and professionals. I have always been fascinated by it but have never tried it myself. Bali was a place that had been on my list to visit for a while, so it was time to combine both - freediving in Nusa Penida, an Island 30 minutes away from Bali. As I wanted to experience it fully, I went for the "zero to hero" - a six-week program to soak in all learnings. Here is a more detailed blog post about my experiences and learnings through the process.
During my Wave 3 training on the Molchanovs freediving program, I got a throat injury that forced me to take a break from the training. At first, I was upset, as my development in the sport was going well, and I was managing to slowly and organically go beyond my limits. However, this change of plans also opened new doors - I visited Ubud, the rice fields, explored more of the Nusa Penida Island, had an introduction to underwater photography and got to meet locals who introduced me to the Hinduism culture - I got the chance to participate in a cremation ceremony and a wedding, I learned more about and experienced reef restoration and visited a seaweed farm. I spent my last days in Bali in Amed, where we hiked up Mt. Agung for sunrise (an active Vulcano and the highest point in Bali) with a friend I made in the freediving community. It was a month filled with experiences and knowledge gathering.
Bali was incredible, from a cultural and nature-perspective experience, the people, the food, how I felt… with no doubts, a place I look forward to returning to.
Towards the end of the month, my next destination: Port Macquarie, Australia
It had been four years since I last saw my nephews. My sister has lived in Australia for over ten years and has created her own life and family there. As Australia is a faraway place, the occasions we all get to meet are rare. It was time to spend quality time with her and the kids (now 4 and 7). Here is a short, motivational text about a reflection done daily by the 4-year-old nephew.
It had been fours since I had seen the kids last - the challenges of having a family spread around the globe. If you're wondering about my roots, I recently wrote a post about it.
I didn't travel much around. Instead, I focused on creating a routine for myself, spending family time and enjoying the surrounding nature (with its breathtaking beaches, sunrises and sunsets and admiring the whales and dolphins having fun from afar) while also working on the project, the seeds of which had been planted in July. More about it in November 👇
As mentioned before, I started putting in motion a new project in July, which has been stored in the back of my mind since 2019. After a talk with a friend in June, it was time to put the idea into practice and make it a reality, not just a mere sketch. From July to November, I worked as much as possible in the backside of things, understanding and creating structures, mapping partners, and developing the project design and elements into a newly found business model. From the beginning, it was clear that an association would have to be created in Switzerland to make it all happen: unboxing cycles is the name it received. Thus, my return to Zürich. This time, for longer. I have committed to stay around for at least 15 months - the duration of this initial project phase. I have committed to making my writing in a paper come alive and become a new reality.
A new beginning for me - personally and professionally - creating a rather settled lifestyle with routines, groups of friends, social encounters and developing a business conducted locally. I decided to put the nomad lifestyle to a halt for the time being. That decision has caused a bit of turmoil inside, a little identity crisis. After 3,5 years of calling myself a nomad, who am I now in this new way of living? But that’s material for a post on its own.
If you're curious about the project, here is a one-sentence summary: "an artistic and educational project to raise awareness about the menstrual cycle". Want to know more? Here is the website with all the bits and pieces to know.
It has been a challenging yet exciting and positive process of creating a new venture. Professionally, the journey of making the project happen, finding the right people and preparing for the fundraising chapter. In parallel, in my personal life, I am settling back and rediscovering a lifestyle I haven't lived for 3,5 years.
The project continues. It is slowly finding its form, attracting the right people to put it into motion, and creating partnerships and funding opportunities.
Next to the project, while the fundraising process is ongoing, I am still working on my other professional projects to ensure income. These include selling prints, getting Hotel Nomad projects, and developing and creating the Wisdom of Agile book (coming soon). I also accepted the opportunity of working at the Christmas Market in Zürich, selling Leibacher Biberlis from Leibacher Biber-Manufaktur AG - Zürich made sweets, by the family-owned business of my former Bachelor college Silvan Leibacher. It was a unique experience that also caused an initial internal unease but ended up being fun to go through.
Uff. What a year. Experiences, learnings, challenges, steep growing curves, finding and extrapolating limits, moving and settling. Finding new ways of living and rediscovering a passion that was long hidden. At the beginning of the year, not much made sense, a feeling of not knowing which path to take next, while towards the end, things seemed to start aligning, and suddenly everything (and I literally mean everything, my whole life and past experiences) starts making sense and aligning in the form of this beautiful association that is in its growing phase.
I look back with proud eyes and a sense of gratitude and accomplishment. I am proud of what I have been through and the experiences I had the opportunity to live. How do you feel when looking back? Which sentence or word would you choose to summarize your year?
Mine? As cliche as it might sound: "follow your heart". All my decisions this year were based on that, leading me to outcomes I could not have imagined beforehand. Life is too extraordinary to be lived ordinarily.
So here is my thank you to those who made (and keep making) all of this possible, for all the exceptional individuals I met along the way, the ones I knew already and can count as a solid ongoing support system, to my family for always having my back in all decisions I make, independent of how crazy they might seem from the outside, for the countless experiences I had the opportunity to live, for the beauty of nature with its breathtaking sunrises and sunsets that I had the chance to witness throughout the year, and simply for life as it is. Even though I have moved a lot on my own and spent a good portion of time alone, I have never felt lonely
With this being said, I wish you these few last beautiful days of the year and a memorable beginning of 2024. Let it bring curiosity for life and opportunities to live it fully.
Life is too extraordinary to be lived ordinarily.
Let 2024 bring all of its own surprises.I’m ready. Are you? 🚀