I was just tuned eighteen and I was traveling alone through Europe by train. The first stop was Berlin. From the moment I got off the train I felt there was something magical about this city, I felt at home. A feeling that had never happened to me before.
Berlin always makes me feel like I am changing into the person that I really am. Like there’s someone _underneath_ the person I thought I was. Every time I walk around Berlin I feel inspired to become a better version of myself and break through the wall that I keep bumping into here in the Netherlands. In Berlin I have the feeling that there are opportunities everywhere to develop myself and discover talents. There is something magical about the city.
Berlin can be gray but also so colorful. She is soothing and overwhelming. Maybe that’s what draws me to Berlin so much. The city sometimes feels like a reflection of myself. I fell in love with and in Berlin, found my best friends in Berlin and very cliché; I found a piece of myself in Berlin. With loved ones, friends or alone. Berlin was and is always there for me.
It has now been a year since I was in Berlin for the first time and I went back more than a dozen times in the past eight years. As soon as I am back in the Netherlands, the loss starts immediately. Berlin is a magnet for me, I always feel the urge to go back.
That is why I will be start a new adventure in April of this year. The chapter in my life that starts with moving to Berlin!
Naomi du Chatinier