Reflective October

I'm now in Canada. I recently joined a really amazing startup called Kera. It is the best way to teach someone how to use your app or website online. Check out the demo: kera.io

I'm really reflective right now like Mulan, except I'm not indecisive or anything. I'm just a little in awe of my experiences and reminiscing on passed moments. Maybe it's the fall. Maybe it's starting in a new city. Maybe it's starting a new job. Maybe it's a new home. Or maybe it's because almost exactly a year ago I left Berlin. It was actually on Halloween. Some dates I'll always remember. 5/5 first day at Apple. 11/11 incorporation of my company. 1/1 first girlfriend.

But these days, memories I haven't revisited in ages make pleasant appearances. Mostly German ones. Bumping into a colleague at Rewe after work on Saarbruckestrasse. Working out at McFit. Working out at Fitness First off Regents Street and Baker Street. London Business School and LSE libraries. Marylebone train station. Virgin train to Holyhead and Ferry to Dublin. Cruising around Zoologischer Garten with my Asian friends. Watching a war film with an old girlfriend. Having a house warming party with no furniture. Living in Kreuzberg for a month while searching for an apartment and competing with Germans for apartments. International boat party. The nudist lakes. Polish trains. Living in Manor House and shopping at Sainburys. Having a Gingerbread Latte at Starbucks somewhere in Roppongi Hill. Living in a furnished company housing apartment and making sandwiches for dinner or Swabian Maultaschen. Christmas time on Oxford St in London. T5. Apartment on Bond Street.

These random sentence fragments might not mean anything to anyone else but to me, I'm teleported to those moments and those places and those feelings. It's incredible to myself sometimes. I feel lucky for the people I've met, things I've done, and places I've seen. I'm grateful for those times. Too bad all they are just memories.

It's pretty exciting moving to a new city and not knowing anyone. I must have had 8 phone numbers (2 UK, 1 DE, 2 US, 2 CD, 1 CN) in the past year and about 4 smartphones. You truly know what it's like to be independent. You do everything yourself. It's really novel. The thing with people is we experience hedonic adaptation and start taking things for granted. It's like coffee habituation. And I've just been trying harder and harder to make my life as interesting as possible, until one day I couldn't anymore. It is a lot of work actually. Because in a way you almost have to break things and start fresh to get that rush, to feel the relative change. But now I want stability in my life.

I'm not sure why I'm suddenly looking back at my adventures with gratefulness. Either way, I'm thankful. It's funny these experiences are mine alone. Even for the people that experienced with me, they might never think of it the way I'm thinking and feeling about it now. I don't know if my adventure of exploring the world is over but I hope not.