Today marks year six of living My So Called Dutch Life-the end of our second decided upon block of time that we would be staying here. And, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most of you, we are still here. This past year has been full of many endings, beginnings, emotions and decisions which have led us to the plan to stay in The Netherlands for another three years.
Let’s start with the beginnings. This year our son began a new school after enduring a difficult situation at the old school. I’m happy to report that things went fantastically! He loves the school, feels connected and accepted and has made many friends. He joined several theater performances and felt very accepted into that community of students and staff. It has been amazing to see how much happier and more confident he is. The downside to the new school, as I reported last year, was that it was a 40-minute drive (without traffic, and there was always traffic) one way. This means that for the past year, I have spent anywhere from three to four hours in the car every day. While that has been quite draining and left me with little time to get things done during my day, it was worth it to see the positive change in our son. Another beginning that hasn’t quite started yet, but is very close, is that our daughter is beginning college. After considering attending in the US, she settled on an American school located in Madrid. So, she will be moving to Spain in a few weeks’ time! It’s an exciting, but also saddish beginning as she will no longer live with us for most of the year. But, we are excited to see where this experience takes her and how she will grow.
And now, we come to the endings. Somewhere around December, we made the decision that the most logical thing for us to do would be to move closer to our son’s school. This meant that even though we really like our current house and the area we live in, we would need to begin looking for a new house. This is not an easy or fun process in the Netherlands, if I am being honest, especially if you are not overly enthusiastic about the move. Nonetheless, we plunged ahead, and I’m happy to report that we will be moving in September (if we survive the stress of coordinating renovations, goods moving and all the little things you have to do when you settle in a new community). This year also marked the end of the volunteering that I have been doing at the school in Rotterdam. After six years of volunteering through PTSA and three years volunteering on the school foundation board and serving as the Newspaper Club and Kindness Club advisors, I said goodbye to those responsibilities. I am looking forward to having less of those obligations taking up my time, but it was also strange to say goodbye to the students and all the work that we had put into the clubs. And finally, we put an end to IB (our daughter’s high school program) and our connection with the school she had attended for the past six years. Let’s just say that not all endings are sad, and the relief we felt at the completion of that program was immense. The past year has been difficult as we continued to watch our daughter struggle with the demands of the program and the difficult environment at the school, and closing that chapter successfully was a happy ending.
These decisions and emotions have led to a lot of chaos and anxiety this past year. There is also (as always, but seemingly more so now than before) the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with thinking about what will happen in three years when our son graduates high school. Where will we go, what will we be doing, where will our kids be, how will we face the challenges that come with all of these factors? All of that has been compounded by stressful times at my husband’s work and the loss of a close family member. It has not been an easy year, and we will likely continue to experience these feelings for a while still, but we continue to try to face the new things with a positive outlook and to try to find things to experience, enjoy and celebrate.
And now, as always, a look back on the goals for the past year…
- Getting myself to where I want to be physically is my number one goal this year.
- Working on 3 or 4 creative ventures that I have been thinking about for a while.
- Getting to a list of about 10 museums that we would like to see.
- Bike to the beach.
In light of everything described above, I completed none of these. This has been my worst year ever for achieving goals. So, my number one goal next year is to do better!
Seriously though, I still hope to achieve the above items in the coming year. But aside from those items, I’m not going to make a list this year. I think I am going to give myself the space to just adapt to the new situation we will be in and to see where the year takes us. My hope is that next year, I can report on some interesting and fulfilling things that we have been up to, but more than that, I hope that I can report that we are all happy, experiencing less stress, and have been enjoying ourselves and making the most of our time.
Happy 6th Anniversary!
My So Called Dutch Life 
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