Chapter closing, chapter opening.

How exactly can it be December again? I only just posted the last blog! The year has only just begun! As I've already realised with several friends, 2024 has gone by incredibly quickly. Or it just seems that way because we're all getting old and the quarter-life crisis is about to kick in. Or a mixture of everything. Either way, here are a few updates and, above all, an outlook.

Current setting: Kitchen table in Lichtenrade, Joni is sitting next to me and working, and I want to feel productive too - blogging is somehow a form of work. Nice work! I've just checked the date of my last blog again. Yes, I've been very busy with my internship and Berlin life, but not writing for almost three months?! Admittedly, I didn't have that much capacity to sit down in peace and write something nice. During my internship, LinkedIn posts, website corrections and event reports were my bread and butter. As a result, I let myself be entertained by Girlmore Girls in the evenings because it required absolutely no mental energy.

Apart from very intensive conference preparation and realisation at work, there have definitely been both wild and very relaxed days in the last few weeks. In mid-October, Carlotti and I went to Paint your Style, where we painted our ceramics over a glass of white wine in between the children's birthday parties that were also there. Afterwards we went to Süß war gestern, and wow, I haven't danced so much in a long time! When I was on my way home at some point, a jogger ran past me, which was a bit absurd. Others were doing their workout, I still had to finish yesterday. After a power nap (ok, 3-hour power nap), I went straight on to Greta's birthday arty. I'm still very excited that one of my Rotterdam people also ended up in Berlin.

The creative vibes of the week were carried over into the next, where I was painting ceramics again with Joni, Jonny and Greta in Lüneburg. Whilst my skills were only good enough for a striped vase, the others let their inner Picasso out. Joni had several dinosaurs on his mug (all talking to each other as ‘Raws’), Jonny visualised his love of cats and Greta painted what felt like half of all the ocean creatures on her bowl.

Slowly, everyday life returned to Berlin. Work, walks with Melina, cooking dates with Greta, spontaneous café visits to Carlotti, pizza with Gunnar and film evenings with my parents. My internship got busier and busier as the conference approached, and at some point the organising team just got on with it. Reason enough to take some time out with Henrike in Münster. And how could it have been otherwise - it was simply wonderful. When Henrike picked me up from the station at night (DB was three hours late), it took about 14 seconds before we were almost crying with laughter and picked up exactly where we left off on holiday. We went to the market and had coffee, finished watching our series and met up with Henrike's friends for a beer and lemon roll shots in the evening. About the series: it took us five years, I don't think we should ever watch anything with several seasons together again.

The end of November also heralds the end of my internship. With the conference, which was incredibly stressful but also successful, there was only one workshop and three weeks of work left. All in all, it was a cool internship and I've grown very fond of the people. But is digital policy the perfect subject area for me to start my career? I don't know. I was most passionate about my role as one of the gender contact persons, and somehow I also miss working as a journalist. In this context, the favourite question of everyone around me is: what now?

Well, I ask myself that question every day. I also successfully suppress the panic that goes hand in hand with this question on a daily basis. Finding a job, finding a flat - that's stressful enough. But then there are the details. London or Berlin? Or somewhere else entirely? Which area? Private or public? International or local? As I really can't respond to any of the questions except with a sweat, I've put them all off. Or rather, the statute of limitations. For almost six years, I've pretty much always had a plan. FSJ, Bachelor, abroad, finish Bachelor, Master, finish Master, internship. And I have to say, as much as I love plans and lists (yes, I have a list of possible programmes and companies for next year, don't worry), I really don't feel like doing anything again straight away. The internship gave me a taster and it had a sour note.

And that's why I'm flying to Shanghai on 6 February to visit Laurie.Because when will I ever be as free as I am now? The trip is relatively open-ended, I'll be back by the end of July at the latest (so I can throw an I'm-back party hehe). Actually, the Sonne Mond Sterne festival is at the beginning of August, and I can't leave it for anything, because 2/3 of my favourite techno artists will be there. And since I'm going with Henrike, a few wild days are pre-programmed.

So, if you hear of any cool jobs in mid-2025 that would be something for me, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll keep this website full of travel stories, because hostels are still the best place to write.

So my dears. 6 more weeks (6 WEEKS!!! What's wrong with time??!!) to get through without an accident and try to give out lots of goodbye hugs, then off we go. Stay tuned for travel reports hehe.