Why I decided to be a nomad

Radical decisions come after radical experiences.

2019 has been quite a year. Things didn’t exactly turn how I had expected. Last summer was a whirlwind of personal, professional, family and health phenomena that turned my life upside down.

Just to give you some context:

• I changed jobs. After two years at ING Labs, I joined Rabobank as an innovation coach.
• I discovered I had high blood pressure, and after a series of tests and hospital visits, the verdict was that I have shitty genes and that I have to take care of myself more.
• I dipped my toes in the unknown waters of property management, in an effort to help my family in Greece become more financially independent — with all the drama that comes with mixing family and business.
• The biggest change by far was separating from my life partner, which was combined with moving out of our common home — the first house in the Netherlands I ever considered home. It was the place of incredible memories with loved ones, my safe harbor when I was recovering from a burn-out, when I ventured out on my own as an entrepreneur, started my wine community, and started organizing a wine festival.

Needless to say, halfway the summer, I felt uprooted and heavily disoriented.

Despite the pain and discomfort, these events in combination, I assume, with being at a pivotal age (in my early 30s) awakened this insatiable need for self-discovery. After recovering from the initial shock and sadness, after dealing with the practicalities and regaining some normalcy, I still felt a bit disoriented. Behind this cloud of confusion, a certain question started to appear in my head. Yep, you guessed it. It’s an existential one 🙄:

Who is Eleftheria today? What does she care about, how does she want to live, what makes her happy, what does she want to bring into the world around her?

At the same time, I started hearing more and more nomad stories by people in my network that did this recently (for different reasons) and made it work. At that point, these two (the existential questions and the nomading) remained totally disconnected.

Not sure exactly how these two landed together, but the trigger was probably the fact that was forced to leave my short-term apartment. It felt like the perfect opportunity to try something radical (at least for my standards). The obstacle can sometimes show us the way, right?

Why I want to be a nomad

The die is cast. I am out of my flat in two weeks, my stuff at friends’ storage, some family time in Greece and from the second week of January, I will be officially a nomad. I, my suitcase, and hopefully a bunch of kind hosts that will embrace me and my nomadness.

I expect that this experience will force me to face a bunch of deeply rooted fears and allow me to measure myself against them. It’s an experiment. It’s meant to be educational, but also fun. Specifically, here is what I’m seeking to learn:

1. Become better at accepting and managing change (the only certain thing in life). I’d like to learn to find peace and home within myself instead of seeking it externally. Of course, I can not do this without some sort of stability and feeling of safety and belonging. But in this case, it’s not going to be a physical place, but rather an intangible place of care, friendship, and love. I see that in my friendships, my network of friendly relationships, and my team of colleagues who give me a sense of belonging.

2. Learn how to live with less. I am a bit of a hoarder. In the last ten years in the Netherlands, I have accumulated and accumulated — often afraid to let go of things. I like this constrain that nomad life is about to give me. It will push me to focus and make conscious choices: what really makes me happy and is worth a place in my tiny suitcase. I feel like this will also trigger the same process when it comes to intangible things. It will push me to let go of thoughts, habits and even people that maybe do not belong in my life anymore.

3. Become better at asking for and accepting help. I dislike being dependent on others. I think it challenges my sense of worth, this idea that I cannot do things on my own. But also not asking for help, protects me from hearing ‘no’, which can feel like rejection. Having an unstable living situation will inevitably force me to ask my friends for a place to sleep or to ‘rescue’ me once in a while, when a host falls through or when there is simply nothing on the calendar.

4. I believe it will strengthen my relationships. Offering and accepting help from loved ones is an incredible way to bond. It requires generosity and vulnerability from both sides, but it also requires both parties to clearly articulate their boundaries. If these boundaries are not spoken, this situation can bring up guilt and frustration. I believe this will make me and my friends better at being in touch with our emotions, understanding our limits and communicating them to each other. To me, this is the way to build rock-solid relationships.

Let the journey begin!

From the 7th of January 2020, I will be a nomad. Who knows for how long? As long as I can last, and as long as it’s fun.

Here it is me, reaching out to you for help 😅

Are you away from home (in NL) in the new year for a few days or few weeks and would like (or would not mind ;-)) having a kind pet-loving Greek lady, watering your plants, sorting your mail or cuddling with your cat(s)?

Just let me know! Write me a message to elefisanomad [at] gmail [dot] com. So grateful 🙌

P.S. There is only one constraint: since I have a stable job that requires me to be in Utrecht four days a week, I’m gonna be a domestic nomad. I’m looking for hosts in areas that are about an hour with the train or the car from Utrecht. Beyond the cities/towns of the Randstand (The Hague, Rotterdam, Gouda, Amsterdam, Leiden, Haarlem etc), I’m also open to hosts in areas around Arnhem, Zwolle, Nijmegen, Breda, Den Bosch, Apeldoorn, Amersfoort.

Have you had your own experience with nomading? What did you learn? Do you have tips for me? I'd love to learn from you. Shoot me a line in the comments or to the above email address.

X Love,

Elef