Out of Routine, Into My Element

If you follow the same path as everyone else, you’ll end up where they’ve been. But what if there’s more? What if the best places are the ones waiting beyond the well-trodden trail?

Four months ago, I graduated from university and turned twenty-one in the same month. A milestone, a breath, a quiet moment of pause. Instead of asking myself, What do I have to do now? or What’s everyone else doing?, I found myself asking something different:

Where can I go? What do I get to do?

For the first time in a while, I realized I had a blank canvas in front of me—not a structured map, not a checklist, but open space. A path stretched ahead with footprints leading in one direction, familiar, expected. And beside it, another route—wild, untamed, waiting to be explored. I could follow, or I could wander.

So I chose to fill in outside the lines. To smear colour across the canvas with my palms, covering the pre-drawn picture entirely. To put on my walking boots and run—not just walk—down the unexplored path, into the unknown, out of routine and into something new. A new element. A one-way ticket to the next chapter.

After months of paperwork, visa appointments, and moments of wondering what’s waiting on the other side, I’m off. I’m moving to France to work, to wander, to gallivant through Europe for as long as my feet and heart will carry me.

I am scared, but I am excited. I am open to every opportunity. I am ready to say yes to this new chapter of my life. And more than anything, I am proud of myself. For taking the leap, for choosing adventure, for trusting that magnificent moments are waiting just ahead.

All I have to do is keep moving forward. Keep being brave. The rest will find me.

Here’s my view from my window seat as I type this, it’s raining outside and it feels calm & appropriate. I feel at ease, sitting here to post one last entry on this blog before we take off. Me, myself, and all the other passengers, also on their own journeys.

I will remember this moment and always love this view. Wherever I may be and wherever I may be going.

Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote, “In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself”