Aziri — Netherlands

📍Netherlands

instagram.com/azzeration

The most inspiring people I’ve encountered in my life are people that have experienced some kind of suffering that I couldn’t even begin to imagine and overcame it. It’s truly incredible how people find the the strength to take a stand when everything has fallen and the brain demands to give up. When they decide that they will not let their suffering define them and that they will become a better version of themselves because of these experiences, incredible feats are accomplished and a new person is born . These are the people I look up to the most.

Aziri sent my roommate a last minute request to stay with us in Atlanta for a couple nights. We’ve hosted almost fifteen people from all over the world for the past couple months so I was starting to feel a little exhausted from hosting but it didn’t take long for us to decide that we’d host him because it just felt right. This was Aziri’s first time in the U.S. and we were his first hosts. You could tell this guy was stoked to hang with people after traveling alone for a week in a new country. His personality lit up the room and you couldn’t help but smile when he would enthusiastically talk about his passions and his plans on traveling the U.S.

Aziri’s story started with him telling us how his parents have both passed on within a short time period of each other and that traveling the world was the only thing that made sense after his life was just rattled with despair. To make matters get more complex, Aziri ended up having health issues of his own during the first night with us and was instructed to fly back home to the Netherlands for immediate attention. I was amazed at his ability to maintain a sense of confidence that he’ll be back and that this was just a small hill in his journey that he needs to get over (and will get over). Long story short, Aziri flew back to Atlanta a few weeks later and stayed with us. He became a brother to Jacob and myself and were grateful to be a part of his adventure. Safe travels and keep on living the life you want. Thanks for being a living testament to not letting past experiences define you and moving forward is possible — even in times of hardships