With quiet, soft steps…./Mit leisen Schritten…

Isn’t life ironic sometimes?
Just two days ago I posted about this feeling that’s been creeping up in me over the last few weeks. Things around me are coming to an end, passing by my eyes, and I can just look after them and whisper a quiet ‘Goodbye’.
And now, Lisa-Jo Baker talks about finishing well in the Five Minute Friday prompt – spot on. So I  post my thoughts again and hope you’ll join the conversation!
photo credit: Nathan Martin

With quiet, soft steps a part of my life says goodbye, and I am too busy to mourn it.
This week was full of ‘lasts’. 
The last paper, the last office hour with a professor, the last seminar.
A few weeks ago already was the last presentation, but I only realized it afterwards. 

It’s a lot of small steps, but they make a big difference, and I become aware of it only bit by bit. 
It’s the end of five years at uni. 
Five years of studying, of thinking and diving into complexities.
Five years of lights going on when I got something.
Five years of crazy study groups and wonderful people.

What I find most interesting or sad about it is not necessarily that it’s over, but that I don’t have time to say goodbye. Too many appointments, deadlines, and thoughts in my head keep me from saying Tschüss properly. 

But it is so important to not just go from one thing to the next. Don’t mourn nostalgically and never let go, but look back on everything you accomplished with pride. Enjoy and be grateful. 
Every step into something new is a bit easier if you finished the step before that well.  

I have written about this topic before, and I feel it will be part of my thoughts for a while. Things become a little easier with a RAFT
Life will always be full of ‘lasts’ and new beginnings. 
A life without movement is impossible – and honestly, who would want that? 
Without movement we are stuck, get rusty, die a little. 
But we can make transitions easier by making them consciously. 

You have to close doors behind you sometimes to know which open ones you can go through next.

How do you make transitions in your life? If you already graduated, how did you celebrate/experience/miss the end of your studies?


Mit leisen Schritten verabschiedet sich ein Lebensabschnitt und ich bin zu beschäftigt, ihm hinterher zu trauern.
Diese Woche war voll mit letzten Dingen. 

Die letzte Hausarbeit, die letzte Sprechstunde beim Dozenten, das letzte Seminar. 
Vor einigen Wochen schon war das letzte Referat, mir ist es aber erst danach aufgefallen.
Es sind viele kleine Schritte, aber sie machen doch einen großen Unterschied, der mir erst nach und nach bewusst wird. 
Es ist das Ende von fünf Jahren Uni. 
Fünf Jahre voller lernen und sich in Dinge reindenken.
Fünf Jahre Aha Erlebnisse haben. 
Fünf Jahre mit verrückten Lerngruppen und tollen Menschen.
Was ich an dem Ganzen interessant oder traurig finde ist nicht unbedingt, dass es zu Ende geht, sondern dass ich keine Zeit habe, Abschied zu nehmen. 
Viel zu viele Termine, deadlines und Gedanken im Kopf um bewusst ciao zu sagen.
Dabei ist es so wichtig, nicht einfach von einem zum nächsten zu gehen. 
Nicht wehmütig hinterher zu trauern und nicht loslassen, sondern mit Stolz auf das zurückblicken, was man geschafft hat. 
Sich freuen und dankbar sein. 
Jeder Schritt in etwas neues ist einfacher, wenn man den Schritt davor gut beendet hat.
Über dieses Thema habe ich schon öfter geschrieben und ich glaube, es wird mich noch ein bisschen länger beschäftigen. Mit einem RAFT geht so manches leichter. 

Das Leben wird immer wieder letzte Dinge und Neuanfänge haben. Ein Leben ohne Bewegung gibt es nicht – und ganz ehrlich, wer will das auch? Ohne Bewegung bleibt man stehn, rostet ein, stirbt. Aber man kann die Übergänge leichter machen, indem man sie bewusst macht. 

Man muss manchmal Türen hinter sich zumachen, um zu wissen, durch welche offenen man als nächstes gehen soll. 

Wie gestaltet du Übergänge in deinem Leben? Wie hast du das Ende deines Studiums erlebt/ gefeiert/verpasst?

[Five Minute Friday] Bloom

Sometimes I wonder.
If flowers thought as much as we do, what would they think about?
Would they think, Am I pretty enough? Is my dress good enough to show myself to the world?
O no, a petal is missing – this is horrible! Where can I hide?
I think I don’t have anything to give, I might just stay a bud forever.
And why in the world am I planted HERE? I’d much rather be somewhere else!

Even though I am not a nature person, it is good to let creation remind us of a few core human, worldy, and spiritual principles. We need those when we are caught in thoughts like those above.

Flowers don’t care how they look, they are just there.
No matter what color their ‘dress’ or if a petal is missing – they just bloom.
They let nature take its course.
A bud eventually turns into a full blooming flower, that’s how it is.

We are called to bloom, just like them.
With everyone we have, especially with our flaws.
Our destiny is not to remain buds forever.
Eventually, this life that’s been planted inside of us has to spring up and show itself to the world.

Flowers can’t decide where they’ll bloom.
But instead of complaining about location they simply make the most out of it.
One of the most amazing things for me is to take a walk and then discover a single flower in the most remote places. A flower in the middle of nowhere stands out.
It’s been planted there for a reason to bring joy to a wanderer’s heart.

We sometimes can’t decide where we are planted for a season in our lives.
But we can decide to make it the best of times by blooming and bringing beauty to unexpected places. You never know what wanderer will come by and be encouraged by the joy you bring.

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One prompt. Writing for five minutes flat. Linking up with wonderful writers. That’s Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker!

[Five Minute Friday] Belong

It was nearly twelve years ago.
We had just come back to Germany, and even though it had only been two years – this time in Uganda had turned my world upside down. I had left as a child and came back as an adult.

Now I sat in a classroom with people I didn’t know, who spoke of things I didn’t know.
I paid with a currency I didn’t know as ‘German’.
I didn’t laugh at any jokes because I had no idea what ‘normal’ teenagers would laugh at.
I was incredibly tired of people asking me how Uganda had been (Have you seen elephants and snakes? Did you kill a lion? Do you speak ‘African’ now?), but as soon as I said no, they lost interest.

I felt utterly lost and in the wrong place.
All I wanted was to belong.
Isn’t that what we all want? I believe it’s a core longing in a human being.
To know who I was, what I could and couldn’t do.
To be me and others to be okay with it.

And it happened.
On a camp in the middle of nowhere, on a weekend with a lot of rain.
A group of people who had grown up in Russia, Brazil, Tanzania, or Egypt – all stranded in their ‘home culture’ Germany and having now clue about anything.
As soon as we started talking we clicked.
No matter where you have lived, no matter how long you’ve been gone, no matter how old you are – you are one of them.

We are all Third Culture Kids.
We feel lost in every single culture we have lived in, as if we don’t fit in any of them.
So we build our own space where we can find safety; a place we can call home.
Where we can be ourselves, as crazy, funny, or sad it might be.

This is a place to belong. And it is to this day.
Faces might have changed, people have grown up.
But as soon as I meet fellow TCKs face-to-face or via email/phone/skype, it is always the same feeling.
A feeling of belonging. Of family. Of home.

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An hommage to my beloved TCK family – but I am also linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker’s Five Minute Friday. One word. Write for five minutes. Don’t edit and share!

[Five Minute Friday] Exhale

I remember when I was in grade 12/13 in high school (in the US, that is a senior), I had a German teacher who started every lesson with a peculiar ritual: one minute of silence.
Sit on your chair, be quiet, and simply listen to your own breathing.
Inhale.
Exhale.
And again.

What seemed rather odd at first became my favorite part of the school day.
Looking forward to this one minute of pause, rest.
Doing nothing.
Just being.
Just listening to that breath that got me through the day.
That breath showing me that I was still alive.
Inhaling and exhaling was my way to show the world that I was still going, that I would continue to pick up the small and big fights it offered me.

I guess we need that moment of silence even when we’re out of school.
Life is just busy, throwing challenges at us, keeping on us a constant run.
We need that pause button, that short moment of rest.
Exhale and let go of things that bother us, that we can’t handle anymore.
Like that breath leaving our mouth feeling how that weight is lifted off our shoulders.
Take in new air, new perspectives, fresh voices.
Grasp inspiration and vision.
Inhale and show the world that we’re still alive.
That we keep going.
And that we’ll continue to pick up the small and big fights it offers us.

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It’s Friday and I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker. One prompt, five minutes of writing. No editing. Happy Friday!