Every year again, when most people are still recovering from all the holidays with their bellies eaten round (and sometimes a slight hangover), my party actually only just starts as my birthday is on the second of January. As my family and friends know by now, I’m not the kind of person who prefers to let her birthday pass in silence, afraid to be the centre of attention. Rather the opposite. And so, every year, my entire social circle has to put up with it again. Hence, the first new year’s resolutions are already broken on the second of January. The most beautiful day of the year!
Thirty! Or as the Italians say: “Trent’anni e non sentirli!”
It was a very special birthday this year. It was in the year 1991 that I arrived on this beautiful earth, which means that I got to blow out thirty birthday candles this year. Thirty! Or as the Italians say: “Trent’anni e non sentirli!” Roughly translated, this means that you may be thirty years old but you don’t feel the years. In my case, however, that is not entirely true. I still feel very young, but at the same time I look back on thirty wonderful years. Of course, there weren’t just highlights, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss a single year. Because by now my head is overflowing with beautiful memories.
On the back of very young Vietnamese taxi-scooter drivers, I crossed all of Ho Chi Minh City
Lying on my back in the grass on the crater rim of the now vanished Alban volcano I watched the spectacular starry sky on a warm summer night. On the back of very young Vietnamese taxi-scooter drivers, I crossed all of Ho Chi Minh City. It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve for me if I didn’t celebrate it with my best friends at our own theme party, and so I’ve started the new year as a Moulin Rouge dancer, a Roman Princess, a real English Duchess, a Bondgirl, a masked Venetian beauty and as the Russian Anastasia this year. When I started my career with a large financial institution in the corporate world, right after graduating, I didn’t find my dream job, but I did make friends for life. I have always listened to music a lot – even made music myself – and I can’t live a day without it.
In Barcelona my friends and I – only seventeen years old – slept on a bench after we missed the last train and though it was a good idea to go bungee jumping the next day
In Dublin I danced the night away, in Paris we drove circles on our scooter around the Eiffel Tower until its glittering lights went down and in Barcelona my friends and I – only seventeen years old – slept on a bench after we missed the last train and though it was a good idea to go bungee jumping the next day. In London, a friend and I pulled off a dramatic and totally improvised performance to make our way out of a very small and fancy restaurant after we had a look at the menu, in Naples I took opera lessons and ate pizza every single day for two months straight and in Bangkok we drank cocktails on the roof of a skyscraper. When I moved to Italy, I threw a farewell dinner to which I invited my 42 (!) best girlfriends and three male friends, who of course had the night of their lives.
The times I did performances as a young girl – at song contests, in self-written plays or doing dances – are countless
I grew up with animals and was always playing outside. With my cousins, we built tents from sheets and clothes pegs and invented our own games. Carnival was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the year. The times I did performances as a young girl – at song contests, in self-written plays or doing dances – are countless. When I was fifteen, I decided I wanted to learn to ski and I saved up all my salary I earned as a waitress for ski camp. When we heard that we passed our exams and graduated from high school, we jumped into one of our father’s vans for a weekend at a campsite at sea. Only one of us had her driving licence (and only for a very short time) and that’s how the trip ended with a collision with the neighbour’s car. Oops.
That’s how the President of the European Commission invited me to sit next to him at a press lunch on a piazza in Florence while we were surrounded by a whole bunch of international journalists
Amsterdam was the city where I arrived as a teenage girl and left five years later as a young woman with many more dreams and ambitions. In Brussels, I worked at the heart of European politics as a 23-year-old and that’s how the President of the European Commission invited me to sit next to him at a press lunch on a piazza in Florence while we were surrounded by a whole bunch of international journalists. For me, Frankfurt will always be that cold city where I worked for three months and where I lived on my own for the first time. Naples taught me how to live when tomorrow is not a guarantee and Rome is the city where I came home.
You will recognise the moments of which you know now that they have been very important. A decision you made that suddenly blew a new wind through your life
When you look back on your life so far, you will recognise the moments of which you know now that they have been very important. A decision you made that suddenly blew a new wind through your life. A turning point, a new beginning. For me, that undoubtedly was when I got on a plane to Rome in 2015. Did it make sense for me to continue my studies in Italy when I actually already had my master’s degree in my pocket? Not at all. However, it’s no secret anymore that this choice was not exactly driven by a deep desire to further develop myself academically. Instead, it was driven by a desire for adventure, the southern sun and learning a beautiful new language. The fact that I moved to Italy for the second time four years later actually was just a logical consequence, as an unavoidable next step on this wonderful path of life that keeps unfolding every single day.
Trent’anni e sentirli tutti
And now I’ve turned thirty and I look back on all those wonderful years with a big smile and a heart full of gratitude. I would not have wanted to miss a second of it. Trent’anni e sentirli tutti. All thirty!