Wanderlust – it feels good to be lost in the right direction.

Mark Twain once said: ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’

You could say that this was kind of a mantra for me this summer. And it still is. I’ve always been someone who easily overthinks decisions. But since a few months I changed this habit and I just do. Sometimes I fall down but I think it’s way better to make experiences and learn from them than not to make them and always have in mind ‘what if?’.

This year is my last year in university so I had to write my final exams during the summer. Since I also changed my working habits I tried to write as much as I could in may and june so that I could go to france in july to work in a surfschool at the atlantic coast as I do every year. So after a pretty stressful spring and early summer I left Germany and I went to one of my favorite places in the world. The surfschool where I work at is part of a really adorable campsite in southwestern france. Basically it’s just a pine wood at a beach with more or less five shops. Nothing more. But still this place means the world to me since I’m going there since I was four years old, my mother even went there when she was a child, I found deep friendships, I fell in love.

So even if I had to travel back to Germany for two days in august just to write one of my goddamn exams I went there and it was amazing as usual. I hung out with my parents, I met old friends and I was outside all the time which I really adore. After the horrible exam I went back and worked three weeks more before my plane back to Germany went off. Back home I had a concert with my band and I had ten days to study for my next exam. You know what happened? I totally freaked out. I was in a house and I had to climb stairs for the first time in almost two months, I missed my friends, the ocean and the woods. So what I did then might seem a bit crazy: I booked a flight back. Yep. I went back there to study in a wood with no internet, no library, no writing desk. To stay there for five more days. And you know what? It was the best decision I ever made.

I went to the beach with my books, I sat down in the wood, I hung out with my beloved ones and damn – I rocked the exam. I’m pretty sure that it would not have been this good if I’ve stayed in Germany. Even though I had a big fight with my parents about it (because, you know, parents must be worried if their child does something objectively considered completely foolish) I would do it again. And again. And again. Maybe I’m doing it soon. Because I feel the urge to travel. Not only there but I want to see the world. To be honest: when will I ever have the time again to do what I want and to go where I want with the people I want to have around? I’m going to be a teacher for children with special needs and I’m pretty sure that once I’ll start to work in a school I won’t leave again.

So maybe this is my time to explore the world. I started to take my own decisions and I love it. Oscar Wilde once said: ‘Live with no excuses, travel with no regret.’

And he is so damn right.