Tomorrow will be my last day in Idaho Falls. When I first arrived here this day seemed so far away that it almost felt impossible that it could ever come at all. Now if I look back on the day I arrived here it feels so distant and so close at the same time. It feels like yesterday, but it also feels like I've been here for my entire life. Which is partly true. It's just that I had to build up from zero a new life, and it took me 10 months. And now that I finally find myself at home, I have to leave it. I have to turn away and say goodbye to the people that standed next to me in this amazing journey. I have to say goodbye to those places that I learned to love with a true traveller's heart. I have to say goodbye to those moments that I will never get back, that I can only replay in my head over and over again and hope for more moments like those. But there won't be any for who knows how long. That's what hurts. The fear. The fear of the unknown. Uncertainty. When am I gonna come back? When will I see these people again? Not knowing when I will get the life that I build for all these months back is killing me. And what also scares me is that I don't know for sure what I will find back home. Are things going to be different, or it's gonna be me who's changed and see things in a different way? All these questions and fears and promises. This is where the hard part starts. This is where the journey begins. This is where I have to take all the things that I've learned in the past 10 months and catch my breath, hold on, because the road goes up now. This is not the end of something. It's the beginning of something bigger, harder, greater. And all the things that I've collected on my way since now, all the people that I've met, all the memories that I've made...I am not gonna leave them behind. It is not for who I leave behind. It's for who I'll always bring with me. Because "I am so grateful to have something that makes the goodbye so hard."
And I am so grateful for the luck that I've had on my journey. Because as I have already said, a journey requires a little bit of luck. In fact, if I try to think about all the coincidences and the things that had happened to me to end up right here in this exact moment I will get an headache. I truly believe that you need something that drives you in life. And you
also need some skills and some knowledge. But another thing that you
need is luck. It's like making a paper plane. You can be really good at
folding the paper in the right shape and you can be really good at
throwing it. But there's a little percentage of fortune in that. If
you're lucky enough, the paper plane will fly very far, but in the end
you never know where it's going to land. And we are like paper planes.
We throw ourselves out into the world, skillful and hopeful, but we
never know where we are going to land. Life is a big question mark and
you can spend your whole time searching but you will never find all the
answers. You can instead choose what fits you best. You can choose what
shape of paper plane you want to become. You can try and practice.
Sometimes you crash, sometimes you catch the right wind with the ground
far beneath your wings. The most important thing is that you aim for
what you dream of and what you believe in. So when you feel the breeze,
don't think about it twice. Take off. Spread your paper wings. Hold your
breath. And enjoy the flight.
