We wanted freedom. Not as a fantasy, but as a choice.
Not later. Not once we had more money. But now.
By last year, both of us started feeling more and more that something had to change. Our life wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t really feel like ours. Work, sleep, repeat…
And believe me, even though a big part of 2023 and 2024 was anything but easy, it gave us both clarity and fresh perspective.
So we made a choice. Not an easy one, but a real one. Entirely our own.
From surviving to living
The idea of “doing everything differently” wasn’t exactly new. For years we’d been talking about traveling, and especially about what it would be like to actually live abroad. But there was always something in the way: jobs, money, responsibilities. So we kept going on autopilot. Doing what was expected of us. Until leaving it all behind suddenly felt less scary than staying in the Netherlands.
From dreaming, to planning, to doing
In the fall of 2024, things started to get serious:
-
-
Where do we want to go?
-
How long do we want to stay away?
-
Which dive school fits us best?
-
How do we generate income?
-
What about our cats, Momo & Murphy?!
-
These were weeks of research, reading, reaching out, listening to experiences, making decisions. And slowly, our travel plans became more and more concrete.
For me (Thessa), this meant starting my own online business as a Virtual Assistant and Productivity Coach. Tasking Thessa allows me to combine my skills with my drive, and the work is 99% location-independent (because let’s be real: no WiFi in the jungle = not gonna happen).
David decided to focus on his webshop Orinaku.com and started affiliate marketing for Enagic by helping people get access to healthy water through the Kangen system.
And then, by the end of June 2025, we had:
-
-
Arranged our dive training at Black Turtle Dive
-
Sold our car
-
Found subtenants
-
Given Momo & Murphy a new forever home (probably the hardest choice of all)
-
Quit our jobs
-
Our mega Trello checklist stood at 100% complete. One thing left to do: saying goodbye.
Not knowing for sure, but knowing it feels right
Yes, there was fear. Plenty of doubts too. Those little voices saying, “Are you really f*cking doing this?!” We got used to them. But none of that came close to outweighing the pure excitement we felt. And like my business coach says: “Feel the fear and do it anyway!”
And no, we didn’t have a twelve-month plan. No detailed route mapped out. Because that wouldn’t fit the kind of freedom we were chasing.
We set up the first three months. For the other nine? We’ll figure it out along the way.
This is us: two people who dared to say:
“This life no longer fits. We’re choosing something new.”
