Five years ago

Indeed...it all started five years ago on a grey Friday afternoon of December.
December 6th or my first flight with an instructor. So much fun since.

Happy birthday !

Another page being turned

Five days remaining before I finally leave the Graduate Living Center. This is a rather long and turbulent chapter of my life that will close this Saturday when I bid farewell to my apartment.

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For slightly more than two years - 26 months to be exact - I have been living in my little 9.5 m² bedroom (98ft²). I have nothing to say against it but I believe it is high time I move on to something bigger, to something cosier, to something I will furnish myself and to something I will tailor to my tastes.

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The Graduate Living Center has delivered on its promises and I will never argue on that. Still, I won't shed any tears for it. I remember the state of happiness I was in when I arrived in August 2005. I arrived as joyfull as could be, loaded with hope and expectations. A new world was opening its arms to me, another world that I had been longing to hug for years. Sure, I also left a lot behind me but I was barely thinking of it, only wondering at the new life I was about to embrace. New conquests and new ventures.

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Things however never go as planned in life and soon enough I experienced the saddest part of my rather short life. Inside this very room, all alone and with no-one to turn to I started my long journey sailing miserably over an ocean of darkness and despair. All this is now history but there had been too many endless hours and restless nights spent in that bedroom to feel comfortable again. It has never been the same ever since and in my mind this place will always remain intimately connected with those events.

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Looking ahead, I changed everything that could connect me back to those times. Changed my research, changed my lab, changed my degree, changed my advisor, changed my friends and even changed my blog... The housing was the last thing I needed to change. Done.

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A page is turned, another one opens itself.

I just love this song...

And I Love You So

Elvis Presley

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And I love you so

The people ask me how

How I’ve lived till now

I tell them I don’t know

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I guess they understand

How lonely life has been

But life began again

The day you took my hand

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And, yes, I know how lonely life can be

The shadows follow me, and the night won’t set me free

But I don’t let the evening get me down

Now that you’re around me

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And you love me, too

Your thoughts are just for me

You set my spirit free

I’m happy that you do

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The book of life is brief

And once a page is read

All but love is dead

That is my belief

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And, yes, I know how loveless life can be

The shadows follow me, and the night won’t set me free

But I don’t let the evening bring me down

Now that you’re around me

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And I love you so

The people ask me how

How I’ve lived till now

I tell them, I don’t know