At the age of 14, I was driven to earn my own money and build up my savings, so I took it upon myself to start working in the hospitality industry, despite it being illegal.

At the age of 20, I graduated with a degree in hospitality management and got a job at the marketing department of a hotel.

Four years later, I achieved another milestone by graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Communications. With almost five years of part-time experience in the marketing communication, I was able to effortlessly transition from one amazing job to another in the years that followed.

Meanwhile, I got into a stable relationship.

After 5 years, we bought a starter house and renovated it. To make it picture perfect: we got a dog, two cars and a motorcycle.

This was the same year that I started to commute almost 3 hours a day for my full-time bachelor studies.

Additionally, I worked 20 hours during the week, and I had three hands full of good friends that I wanted to see every day.

Yeah. Life was smiling at me, and didn’t allow myself to complain … I did anyway.

Why?

I was missing something.

I thought, “Is this it? Is this the direction I want to go to with my life? HA! Am I in a quarter life crisis?”

It seemed like life had more to offer than what I had until now.

Hence, I ended my relationship of almost 10 years and started to live alone.

Personal fulfilment and my own happiness were my new focus — I was 25 years old at that time.

The next two years flew by.

I loved my work, and I was in a relationship.

He moved to Berlin for an internship, I followed.

Somehow it gnawed at me that I had never lived abroad, unlike many friends had.

The truth is, an inner voice was strongly saying: “You are a woman of 27 years old, if you want to make a career and enjoy life before starting a family, you really MUST do it NOW”.

Life as an expat was not easy in the beginning.

I was feeling lonely and overwhelmed.

Yet, I didn’t want to move back to the Netherlands so the whole sh’bam happened: friends coming and going, jobs that didn’t match me, a career that derailed, a long-term relationship that came to an end, and I lost closed ones.

I was tired from all that pressure, all that performing, and that high-speed train I was in.

The consequence?

I sunk in FOMO, was getting more connected with others, and said to everything YOLO — yup, all distractions; all me.

Then Corona came …

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t lived by life – I was lost and forced to stand still.

I started thinking: “What do I do now? Where should I go? What can I do? Who am I? What brings me joy? What did I learn from life? Which strengths do I have? What is my purpose? How do I make my time that life gives me meaningful?”

In the beginning, I felt stuck and overwhelmed.

But the more I worked on answering these questions, the more purpose, direction, and goals I saw, and the more life was starting to turn into what I was envisioning.

I didn’t want to be dependent on things anymore.

I wanted to become interdependent and take back control of my life.

Therefore, I did some personality and career tests, and made a realistic 3-year plan (2020).

The plan was based on: the things that were important to me (values), what I wanted to achieve in life, and what I needed to reach my goal.

What I think (2020) I have to do to attain the life that I want:

The tests were stating I should focus on roles as a coach or consultant: I found ways to gain skills and knowledge (2020-2021).

Help other people in the pandemic to experience meaning and joy: I started mentoring people (2020-2021).

Improve language skills: I did a German course (2020).

Get a certification that aligns with my strengths and personal values: I did a 6-month full-time program to become a life & business coach (2021).

Find a job that provides a certain level of security, puts me in my strengths, and gives me space to grow again; ideally, a job that let me flourish (2022).

While building a meaningful life; helping people moving forward: Work in progress 🖤 (2023)

While writing this story, I realized a few things.

(1) I learned a lot throughout my life as a millennial.

(2) I have experience with struggles regarding cultural differences, feeling (dis)connected with family abroad, friendships, career, work-life balance, and just landing and adapting to a new environment in general.

And (3) during the Master Coach program, I learned which questions to ask, techniques to use and exercises to do, to change mindsets and behaviours and guide people in; conflict situations, choice-making, work-life struggles, uncertainties and barriers, clarity, physical symptoms, relationship issues, ambitions, and career.

Why not combining this?

Why not guiding millennials and empowering them with the tools that can help them build resilience in a life that’s filled with stress, pressure, choice-making and (inner) conflicts?

And so my life vision became reality.