| When you live in Belgium and read other people's blogs you'll know the "stokje"
phenomenon. It's a thing bloggers here do : they write something or post a picture and then send the same task to a few
others (usually two people). It can be a picture of themselves in a closet (which was hilarious) or a post about the
43 things you'd like to do before you die. The
word "stokje" means "a little stick". It's a reference to the baton runners use during a relay
race. You get the stick, do the task and pass it on. And I have just gotten one from
Claudia (thank you,
I'm honored). I'm now supposed to tell you people what I was doing 1 year, 5 years and 10 years ago. And I should write
it in dutch, but as usual I'll skip that part. Can't neglect my foreign friends, can I ? So here goes ...
One year ago I was still living with
my girlfriend. We'd just had our ninth anniversary together and I was oblivious to the fact that she wasn't as happy
as she deserved to be. What can I say ? I'm a guy, we are dumb like that. Tell us in straight words what you want and we'll do it. Mention nothing and
we're blind as a mole in the batcave. Anyway, I was living with her in our old apartment, with our
teddybears (who take over the
xbox sometimes), Ikea furniture, washer and dryer and no dishwasher.
I was hard at work trying to set up new belgian and
dutch sites for
my employer and getting more stressed out by the week. A few months later she left me, leaving me with lots of questions and regrets. In the rest
of that year I tried to pick up the pieces of myself and find a new meaning in life. So far I have found photography ... a new hobby I was thinking about earlier
that year and in which I escaped from the obvious
torment. To this day I'm both glad to have this new interest and new
friends, and deeply saddened to have lost
the love of my life. But there's nothing
I can do about that.
Five years ago I was enjoying the first months of living together. A few months earlier we found a nice and cheap place in Leuven
and both moved out of our parents' house. She was still studying at the time (she's younger and smarter than me) and I was working for UNIZO, building and maintaining their websites (KMOnet
being the most important one). I didn't have my Audi A3 yet as the 19 year old Audi 80 was still doing what it had to : drive me to work and back and in the weekends on trips to
our parents. Life looked good : we were young and in love, starting our own household, had a steady income and didn't
have to think about kids yet.
10 years ago I was studying in Leuven. I had just met the love of my life and me and my friends were about to give the
first concert with our new band XP. The summer decided to start early in the year and everything seemed to be fitting
together. Love, life, studies, the band, our families ... I had zero worries. I would end that year with high honours
and make full use of my summer holiday. Ellen and I tried to see eachother as much as possible (she lived near the dutch
border, I near the center of the country) and I already couldn't imagine life without her. When she decided to stop her
studies in Leuven and go to Diepenbeek and Maastricht I gave her my most
trusted possession : Bruin, the teddybear I got when I was born. Just to show her how much I meant this relationship. She
took very good care of him.
I'd like to give this "stokje" to Peter (if he wants it) because
he's one of the only people I know and/or read that hasn't gotten it yet and to Herman who could do an alternate version and post a picture made 1 year, 5 years and 10 years ago ? |
