For a long time, I thought people moved because something wasn’t working.
A job they disliked.
A relationship that had ended.
A place that no longer felt like home.
That isn’t our story.
Exactly twenty years ago, in August 2006, my husband and I arrived in the Netherlands. And now, in August 2026, we are leaving together.
Twenty years that quietly became our adulthood. Twenty years that turned a foreign country into home.
And that’s exactly what makes this so confusing.
We are not leaving because we are unhappy.
We love our house. We love our neighborhood. We love the simplicity of everyday life. We love that our daughter’s school is only minutes away. We love how familiar everything feels. We know the roads without thinking.
We know what home feels like.
If anything, these past weeks have reminded us just how grateful we are.
And yet…
Somewhere along the way, my husband and I found ourselves asking each other the same question:
We could wake up here for another twenty years, perfectly happy with the life we’ve built. But what if we’re not done exploring yet?
Not because there was anything wrong with it.
Quite the opposite.
Perhaps because it was so good.
Somewhere underneath all that gratitude lived another emotion.
Curiosity.
The feeling that maybe life still has another chapter waiting. That perhaps there are experiences we haven’t had yet, places we haven’t called home yet, versions of ourselves we haven’t met yet.
For a while, I struggled with these emotions because they seemed to contradict each other.
How can you be deeply happy and still want change?
Shouldn’t happiness automatically mean staying?
I’ve realized it doesn’t.
Gratitude and curiosity can exist in the same heart.
You can appreciate everything life has given you and still wonder what else is possible.
You can love a country and still leave it.
You can miss a place before you’ve even gone.
Perhaps that’s what growth feels like.
Not running away from something.
But gently walking toward something else.
Twenty years ago, moving to the Netherlands felt like the biggest leap of my life. I remember hoping that one day this country would feel like home.
It did.
That may be one of my greatest achievements – not professionally, but personally. Building a life in a place that wasn’t mine until it became mine.
And now, exactly twenty years later, we find ourselves stepping into the unknown again.
Strangely, the feeling is familiar.
Leaving a place we know for one we don’t. Leaving the comfort of home for the uncertainty of something new. Once again, curious about what life might have in store for us.
And as I stand at the edge of this new chapter, I am excited.
I’m terrified.
I’m grateful.
I’m already nostalgic.
And somehow, all of those feelings are true at the same time.
Maybe that’s what makes this move different.
I’m not closing a door because I have to.
I’m opening another one because life still has more to show us.
Thank you, Netherlands, for twenty years of becoming, belonging, and building a life I am incredibly proud of. Thank you for everything you gave me, and for becoming home when you were once the unknown.
I leave you with a full heart, knowing I will miss you deeply.
And with that gratitude, I turn toward what comes next.
Hello, London,
A new unknown, a new horizon, a new chapter.
Bring it on!
Written by Neli 