Starting line

Brussels - January 12, 2008

An irrepressible need to move has been coursing through me for years.
An impatience coursing through his veins. A muffled, persistent call.

22 years old. I've only just begun to enter adult life.
A job. A girlfriend. A furnished apartment. A car. Friends. A family that loves me.
A tidy life, built piece by piece.
A life that, from the outside, ticks all the boxes.

So why this emptiness in the chest?
Why do I get short of breath as soon as I look at the calendar?
Why this feeling that if I don't leave now, I'll never leave?

I've made my decision.
Without a plan, without a route, without certainty.
Only this deep conviction: I must leave .

I quit my job, gave up my apartment, sold my belongings. The rest, I gave away.
No more material possessions. I only have the essentials with me: a bag, a few clothes, an empty notebook.
Everything I own fits on my back.
It's frightening and exhilarating at the same time. An uncontrollable need for adrenaline, I'm on the right track.

The moment of departure feels like a leap into the void.
No program. No safety net.
I am leaving behind comfort, habits, and pre-established paths.

Brussels Airport. One-way ticket to Delhi. No return flight planned.
Just a ticket, a racing heartbeat, and the feeling that my life is about to change forever. I step onto the plane. Irreversible, my destiny must be fulfilled.

I don't yet know what awaits me.
I don't know yet who I will become.

But I know one thing:
What I was yesterday will not return.

The adventure begins here.

By Elias Nordren — Founder of Nomad Drift