Today is my birthday.
And this year, this day carries an extra meaning.
I’m a year older. And from today, you can pre-order Follow Your Heart in Dutch. My book can now truly begin to find its way to readers. Something that lived for so long mainly in my head, my heart, and on my laptop is now stepping into the world.
So yes: a double celebration.
And I’m going to celebrate. With something sweet, with dear people around me, and with a small moment in which I get to say out loud: this really happened.
Another year older
After turning thirty, birthdays started to feel a little more nuanced. Time seems to move faster as the years go by. And the clock keeps ticking, whether you feel ready for it or not.
You look back. You notice what has shifted. You feel what you have carried, what you have learned, what you have let go of, and perhaps also what you have chosen again.
When I look back on this past year, I mostly feel gratitude. For the dear people around me. For the conversations that helped me sense more clearly what was right. For the moments when I thought I was stuck, and still found a way to take another step.
And honestly: I also feel proud.
I stretched my own boundaries. I moved through doubt and uncertainty. And in some way, that is exactly what brought me to this day.
A book that is ready to enter the world
For me, this is what the pre-order means: the book is no longer only mine. It is finding a place beyond my own world. Soon, it may reach people who perhaps need to hold it at exactly the right moment.
The past period has been about finishing, choosing, and letting go. Making one more sentence better. Reading one more chapter again. Adding one more nuance. And eventually deciding: it is good now. It can move forward.
That feels exciting.
And at the same time, it feels right. As if this is precisely the moment when the book can gently begin to find its own way.
What the book is about
Follow Your Heart was born from my own search for direction, inner strength, and meaning.
From moments when I felt that something needed to change, but did not yet know how. From that familiar tension between head and heart: your head looks for certainty, while your heart often already knows what is true.
The book is about learning to listen again. About taking doubt seriously, without disappearing into it. About small, honest choices that bring you step by step closer to yourself.
For people who may seem to be functioning perfectly well on the outside, but feel on the inside: somewhere along the way, I have lost a little bit of myself.
And perhaps that is also why this day feels so special.
Because this book is about daring to move before everything feels certain. And that is exactly what I am invited to do again now.
Today, I’m celebrating in a small and intimate way
I’m very good at moving on to the next thing. To what still needs to be done. To what can still be improved. To the next step, the next list, the next responsibility.
But today, I don’t want to do that.
Today, I want to pause.
With my birthday. With this book. With the fact that something that once began as an inner longing is now becoming visible.
I’m celebrating in a small way, with dear people close by. People with whom I feel I can be fully myself. People who see me not only in what I do, but also in who I am.
For today, that is more than enough.
Pre-order
Would you like to pre-order Follow Your Heart in Dutch?
From today, you can. And honestly: that would make this day even more special for me.