Duygu Holat

I want to write something about an ending year in my life for the first time. There was always a topic that we talked with my friends; “There are periods which everyone has turning points.” 2018 was a year for me that I discovered my turning points. It was a year when I tried to move from neutral to positive. So I decided to write my turning points at 2018.

It was a year when one of my friends believed it was his turning point like me. I have this scene in my mind; “We sit in the cafe, he tells about himself to me, I ask him various questions.” The opposite of the same scene happened to me a few months later. In fact, the questions we asked were not the questions we wondered about, the questions that would help us to find the right point. As a matter of fact, thanks to these sessions we had the courage to leave our safe area and try something new.

My relationship with each of my friends is different, but this year my expectations changed by my friends. It was a year which I wanted people who don’t make me tired, who can be guide, who can criticize, who have added value to my life.

Ibn Battuta has a quote about travelling; “Travelling, it leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller.” I’m completing my speechless point yet and I’m trying to turn into a storyteller. I know I have more steps, but I realize that I feel better every day when I take these steps. Travel have always made me feel better through all my life, but I realized I forgot about it when i focused in my daily life.

In March, I made a trip to Prag — Budapest with my two friends and this trip reminded me my travel passion. I took a road with my two friends who I loved so much but we haven’t travelled together before this trip. At the end of the trip, I gained two close friends.

Budapest, Hungary

In August, one of my friends called me and asked this; “Should I start my breakfast place or should I go back to business?” The question she actually asked was, “Should I continue to work in any company or should I play my own game?” If she’d asked me in the previous years, I could put off by saying the option of not taking any risks. She was very excited when she was talking about the possibility of opening her breakfast place. Obviously, she would be very happy when she opened her own place. (By the way her breakfast place was opened in October.) Sometimes we have to take a risk in order to change things in the direction we want. I told my friend that she asked me this question at the right time. In those days I thought of going to Athens, it was very meaningful to ask me this question. It would be a new beginning for me.

Last year, I had joined the JCI association through a friend of mine. I had taken a few small steps to social responsibility projects. JCI’s biggest contribution to me was that I realized how good I felt during the steps I took. At that time, I had the feeling; “I wish I could work in this area with my own knowledge and experience”. That’s exactly why I live in Athens now.

In fact, sometimes we know that we can do it better, but we do as much as we want to do. This does not lead us to the conclusion, or it slows down the process. Nothing is lost with just one more step.

They asked me for a motivation letter when I applied to the project which was the reason I came to Athens. I wanted to do something different by guessing that everyone would write articles on a word document. I took a video to explain myself and i sent this video as a letter of motivation. Maybe they have chosen me because of this video. I learned that trying is not bad and failure is not bad. We can try, we can fail and we can start over with this know-how. Just like in the Design Thinking method which I learned from one of my friends. Experience is certainly more instructive than a lot of information we read.

Athens, Greece

I have a friend group of 7 people that everyone knows each other for 10–15 years. We come together every year for our friend’s birthday and we talk about what the past year brought to him and what he expected from his new age. He tells, we listen, sometimes we criticize him. Actually we check each other. He doesn’t blow out the candles at his birthday, he just shares all his feelings with us on this day.

I think my expectations from my birthday has changed. Being together with my friends is enough to make me happy. This year was very special for me. Once again I realized how big family I had.

My two friends who met on my birthday seven years ago got married this year. I’m so happy I contributed to this.

The end of August, the beginning of September… We had gone to Datça with my favorite couple. They have summer house in a seaside. For a week, we rested our head. We had dinner with their parents, we visited neighbors after breakfast, we read books by the sea. That’s why I remembered once again the importance of being in the moment. I would also like to write about the Ikigai book that accompanied me on this holiday. In summary, Ikigai reminded me that “we should start by finding the reason for breathing”, no matter how old we are. After reading the book, you can’t find it right away, but keep trying!