It started as a pull in my stomach,
A feeling so physical it even hurt a little,
Like a rope was wrapped around it,
Pulling me to take a leap of faith.
Egypt.
I had never thought of going to Egypt,
And definitely not by myself.
My brain kept trying to push this idea away,
Too far outside my comfort zone.
But something deeper had already decided for me.
At first I tried to control it.
My mind kept telling me the same story.
You're just going on a vacation,
Probably a month or two at the most.
You don't even know where to go,
Or how long your visa will last.
It's going to be a nice little adventure.
But my intuition had other plans.
The feeling in my stomach grew stronger every day until it became almost unbearable.
It wasn't excitement,
It was urgency.
I felt something inside me shifting,
As if it took over and wanted me to start letting go of everything.
And so I did.
I didn't have my own house at the time.
I was house-sitting for people,
But I did have a car,
A hamster,
And lots of music stuff.
One by one,
I began to sell them.
I started with small things,
But before I knew it,
I had said goodbye to my dear hamster.
The strangest part was that it didn't even feel like a choice.
When I told my brother I was selling my car,
He looked at me with a huge question mark written on his face.
Why would you sell your car,
He said.
Just leave it at mom and dad's,
You'll need it when you come back.
He was right,
Everything he said made perfect sense.
And still,
I couldn't stop.
Something had taken over the wheel and I was just along for the ride.
Sitting in the plane,
I just knew this journey was going to change my life.
Somewhere deep inside,
I heard a strange whisper,
That someone was waiting for me there.
I could already feel a presence,
A masculine and intense energy.
I spent my first two weeks in Luxor,
Like a real tourist.
Wandering around,
Exploring temples and trying new food.
Near the end of those two weeks,
I had no idea where to go next.
I felt uncomfortable being all by myself and even thought about going back to the Netherlands.
But then,
Without any plan,
I opened YouTube and landed on a documentary about a man who had left everything behind to sell rice pudding in a small town called Dahab.
Something about him,
Or maybe the environment,
Made my whole body react.
Out of nowhere,
I knew this was where I had to go.
The first day I arrived in Dahab,
I looked around and felt like I had come home.
A warm and free sensation filled my body,
Something I had never felt before.
I decided to eat something at a restaurant by the Red Sea.
And while I was enjoying my first few bites,
My jaw dropped.
Rice pudding,
Rice pudding.
It was like I was in a dream.
I looked around and I couldn't believe it was the man from the documentary.
On my very first day,
In my very first moment outside,
I started smiling and softly laughing to myself.
Because I knew it was a sign.
I was in the right place and something huge was about to happen.
In the first two weeks,
While I was enjoying the beauty of this place and the warmth of the sun,
I met him.
I didn't realize it at that moment,
But this was the person I had already felt before I even arrived in Egypt.
The one whose energy I sensed on the plane.
This encounter was about to change my life.
It was going to teach me some of the hardest lessons I had ever faced.
It was the start of a journey and my life would never be the same again.
Thank you for listening.
I hope you enjoyed it.
And I hope you'll be back for the next story.
