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2018 will be over in two days and like every year this time of the season calls to draw some personal balance.

There are these years, where you are just happy that they are over – 2016 was such a one for me. There are the ones where the highlights make you smile, and you are thankful for the lowlights that taught you something and forget about the rest.

And then there is 2018, a year that I will for sure remember as one of my best in my old days.

2018 has been a year, in which I allowed life to develop its own dynamic and created the leeway to follow it, where it felt correct and right.

In February I allowed myself to read the question on the horizon in front of a small island near Palawan, which said: … and why don’t you just travel on? And I allowed myself to seriously consider it – first with heart and soul, and then with the great help of my mind. After 3 hard days I forced myself to go home and take enough time to take a probably very bold decision. I was crying all the way back. The answer was there already, but it took me many weeks to say it out aloud: Yes, I will pack my stuff and go.

And with all big decisions we should not be surprised at how quickly the universe will move once we have decided. Things began to fall in place, missing pieces of the puzzle appeared, my family, friends and many people, I told about my idea, helped. For the first time I felt so much wind beneath my wings for this crazy idea which progressively developed into a solid plan.

On August 2, 2018 I left Vienna and am travelling and living in South East Asia for 5 months now.

In the past 5 months I have seen and experienced so much that it will take me many years to digest it.

Exciting and very still moments, being out in the wild and close to small and big animals, sleeping under the stars surrounded by the sound of the sea or the rainforest. The magic every time I hold my head under water, take a deep breath and dive into the deep blue.

I will forever see people and our world with different eyes. I see families, old and young people living in very different conditions than we are used to in our Western culture. I am constantly challenging my thinking boxes. I so much see that every human being has her or his story, is fighting his or her own fight, and it is far from easy for many here. And I admire the dignity, positivity and openness people are still able to keep up in their life, no matter what.

I met people on my way, who deeply touched me: who welcomed me with open arms without knowing me, who stopped what they were doing just to help me, who gave something to me that they saw I needed – sometimes just a smile in the right moment.

Every morning holds promises, and I cannot count the surprises on my way. Most days here are magic, and travelling is also about creating the opportunities to stumble across wonders – probably with a bit higher chance than the usual repetitive supermarket shopping tours at home.

I meet new people practically every day. You share experiences and special moments with individuals you have never seen before and probably never will again. And then there are these special days, where someone crosses your path by pure chance, but for a good reason. There are these days, where unexpected things happen, things go wrong for a reason. Where I have learnt that these are the moments when life takes over and I more and more learned to trust the process.

Some evenings I went to bed not yet realizing that I have just met a person that will become very dear to my heart, some a friend for life. Thank you, Danke, Terimah kasi!

I believe that these things – the magic of life – can happen to us every day, but we often do not even look up, being so involved and busy in daily tasks and responsibilities.

In 2018 I created the framework for me to be able to stumble across them, see and realize them by taking the decision to completely step out of my comfort zone.

I have fallen so much in love in the past months – with our world, with the big and small creatures on our planet, with nature’s soft power, and with people in general and in particular.

I cannot remember when I felt so much alive for the last time, was so little afraid and had so much confidence in life.

Capturing my moments of 2018 is not only about an incredible wealth of pictures and experiences, but also very much about my personal process.

2018 has deeply changed me, or maybe allowed me to more and more become who I am.

My take-away for 2018 in one sentence? What a wonderful world!

How blessed are we to be able to live and breathe in it, and if you are so much in love and one with this world and its people as I am at the moment, it seems both an easy and so very much complex task to take care of it.

Here are my pictures of 2018: