I’ve got to say: what a year.

I know I didn’t write at all on this blog between my last birthday and this one, and I actually feel a bit ashamed by that. My itch for writing comes and goes in waves. To be honest, the time it “goes” are much longer than the times it “comes” back. It’s a fact I’ve learnt to accept, but I’m still hopeful to change.

There is a feeling in me that this year of my life that has just ended, might be a turning point. Professionally, it has been full of experiences that made me grow exponentially. Don’t get me wrong: I would still love to be already retired and travel the world. The desire for a “Rovering Life” is still there, but, as time goes by, the “restless pilgrim” Alessio is changing into a different kind of person.

From time to time I feel a constant, inner, drive for movement that I thought would never change in my life. But it did.

In the past years, I was always looking for reasons to go away, off on some sort of exploring route or adventure. Slowly but surely, the growing laziness and coziness of life in Berlin numbed my “rovering senses” more and more. However, there are still tons of places, virtually every corner of the globe, that make me curious and want to travel, from the Svalbard islands to Antarctica. Against the odds, that part of myself hasn’t changed yet.

For the first time, however, I also found what makes me want to “stay”, and not just forever “go”.

Experiencing life as a consultant working for an international firm, I’ve spent more nights in a hotel than at home, and the very notion of “home” has been questioned and overturned in 2018.

I’ve realized that I tend to write and publish less when I’m happy. You can judge by the amount of posts you find on this blog from last year, how I feel.

There have been plenty of motives in 2018 to be pissed off, to be fair. I’ve broken many taboos in terms of work-life balance, and I still need to come to terms with that. I do have now, however, a bit of a better plan. Not an original one, mind you, but one that feels better.

My twenty-eight year has been all about trying to set up my life for success in the next years. I’m happy because this did not mean that I did not enjoy (almost) every day that I’ve lived, or (almost) every person that I’ve been privileged to share my life with.

This year I will move to my new flat, most likely. And it will actually be my flat, purchased with blood and sweat, and which will be paid with even more blood, sweat, and interest for the next decade. Welcome into my life, debt! I guess this marks my official and irreversible entry into adulthood.

Google tells me that I’ve been 2.4 times around the world in 2018. Having travelled to Japan and Mauritius in these first weeks of 2019, you can understand how much my life has never been as “rovering” as in these last twelve months. Thirty thousands of those kilometres have been with my Alfa Romeo Giulia, a splendid machine, even though it cost me an arm and a leg in taxes and fines. It also cost me a considerable amount of time dealing with the police of many European countries, after it got stolen only a few days after it was delivered to me.

It looks like the next twelve months will be more of the same.

For once, I’m not at all afraid of that.