December, 2021.
I'm spending the last days of my semester abroad in Spain together with Dennis, my fellow student. It's hard to believe that my stay abroad is almost over. It's hard to believe that Dennis made this incredibly educational and exciting experience possible for me, because I could never have done it alone due to my physical disability. We philosophize about what's next on our agenda once we get back to Germany. Sure, spending Christmas together with the family and mentally catching up on the last few months.
I have to be careful not to get too used to the "states of exception" and always wanting more. While it was always a dream of mine to study abroad for a semester, it didn't really seem realistic until recently. Not in my physical situation. But that's the good thing about always wanting more and pushing your own limits to the maximum: You never give up looking for ways and possibilities to somehow get your own way after all. If you don't do this at the expense of others, not a bad quality I would argue. So as I talk to Dennis about our plans for the future, I realize that my dream has come true.
Actually a reason to be overjoyed. Don't get me wrong, I was very happy and above all grateful that this time in Santander was made possible for me. But besides the positive feelings, there is also something else inside me, something that tells me that this can't be the end of the exceptional circumstances. There is more to come. "Typical," I think, "no sooner does a success story come to an end than I have to start looking for something new, something bigger, something adventurous."
Thanks to my parents, I was able to see a lot of the world in my childhood and youth, despite my disability Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC), they infected me with the travel bug. There is nothing more beautiful and interesting for me than to get to know foreign countries, cultures and people. So it is my life's goal to see as much of the world as possible.
Sometimes ideas strike me like lightning bolt, my whole body literally crackles with energy in these moments. At that moment in Spain, I once again had such a moment when I was struck by an idea that was bubbling with megalomania. But before I think about this idea further and dismiss it as ridiculous, it bubbles out of me half seriously, half jokingly, and I ask in a cheeky, belligerent tone something unimaginable until then:
"Tell me Dennis,
what do you think about me taking a trip around the world
after I finish my master's thesis?"
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