This week showed me how easy it is to feel at home even though I used to struggle with exactly that feeling. I used to feel like I’d never find a place where I feel like I belong, turns out I just surrounded myself with the wrong (or simply too many) people.
I learned a lot about the power of less.
I’ve never felt so empowered and welcomed just the way I am.
The world is a place with lots of varieties and choices and you can celebrate them by deciding on one. Everyone is unique and different in that sense and that’s amazing as long as we allow each other to be exactly the way we know we are. Deep down we all know who we are, what we like, what we dislike and most of us lose that sense or simply become unaware of these things as we grow up because growing up gets taught as a synonym to fitting in.
While we’re giving our all to fit in, we become unhappy.
We feel like there is something to be gained from fitting in until we realize there is not. Then we spent a lot of time to find the trail back to us again and it’s hard. I felt like I was losing myself even more in that process. No matter how many books I’ve read and tutorials I looked up online. I sensed my friends grow tired of listening to my ideas about what may be the problem.
A fact is that I grew tired of listening to myself because there was a very loud noise coming from society. They wanted me back in the space they have prepared for everybody.
Maybe I wanted out so bad because I tend to get claustrophobic in small spaces!
Now I’ve realized I just couldn’t stand it anymore and I felt alone.
Finding yourself tends to be a lonely journey.
That’s exactly where summer academy picks you up! I guess it was the struggle we shared of finding ourselves that made us feel like family after less than a full 24 hours. In this safe space you were allowed to express all your thoughts and do whatever you needed to do.
The schedule was packed and inspiring. At the end of the week you had this sensation of feeling like you didn’t have enough time and as if you’ve been there for at least a month because you’ve grown so much and experienced everyone so intensely.
The trust between all of us is amazing. Everyone found at least one person to trust completely and utterly. I feel like my heart has been healed there and it even grew.
After that I felt everything more intensely and it’s contagious!
When your heart is in something, you’re unstoppable and with a healed heart you can heal other people.
After I went home, I talked to my dad for maybe an hour and believe me he was shocked. He declared me crazy because of my dreams, still I’m not willing to change them ever again. For your information: I told him that my goal isn’t to finish university so I’m not quite sure that I will. Of course, he freaked.
The next day I went to buy a book for myself and he told me to pick one up for him; the autobiography of Steve Jobs! He had researched other famous people who didn’t graduate.
That day I went back to my place at university. A month later I was back home, and my dad was more alive than ever.
He wasn’t ill before or something like that, but there most certainly was no passion during most of his day.
He was glowing! That’s how I know how infectious it is to be passionate.
People around you will declare you crazy and then either follow or fall behind.
I’m so in touch with my emotions that I can feel when someone sucks energy out of me. It’s like a siren is going off in my head, telling me to get away.
I’ve lost myself 6 years ago. I tried almost everything to get me out so I can say with certainty that nothing will help you like a crowd with the same goal and an inspired leader who is ready to give his all: George Begemann.
Joining this event won’t only help yourself. The people around you will feel your change and those who really want the best for you will realize that this is the best for you. You will make the world a better place by following your passion and interests and you will go places only you are able to go.
Discover the truest form of yourself where there is no doubt about it and let your unique light shine! There is a need for your light, and you have the desire to let your light shine! The moment you realize this is the moment your light starts shining.
Don’t hold back from the world.
Join Summer Academy and you’ll never be alone no matter how unique your path turns out to be. Let people see you. Shine!
In high ESTIEM,
Kiana