PREVIOUS CHAPTER: YOUNG ADULTHOOD - DUTCH IDENTITY / ALBUM: 1987-1988 (AGE 18-19)
MIRJAM'S YOUNG ADULTHOOD - INTERNATIONAL IDENTITY
ALBUMS: 1989 - 1994 / AGE 19 until AGE 24
In autumn 1988, I got back into office work at the School of Arts but had plans to leave the country for a while. A 10-day vacation in Hungary in the summer of 1988 had inspired me to go traveling overseas. I had still some connections in Montreal, Canada, and I had contacted an organization to become a child counselor in an USA summer camp. I bought a one-year ticket to North America, and armed with a backpack, I left the Netherlands mid April in 1989. The challenges & adventures that I was facing in my first year of travels were so appealing to me that I created the plan: “5-years working my way around the world”.
In that first year of World Travels, the United States of America became my psychological home country. "Later on in life, after all my travels; after I lived all my adventures, I would get settled in the USA" “But first, I want to see the whole world, and live out all my dreams”, as I had told myself in 1989.
With all my heart, inspiration, and determination, I continued to live life fully in the here-and-the-now; living all the adventures, I dreamed of and created in my project:
“5-years working my way around the world”
April 1989 - April 1994
.jpg)