times of change

Recommended Soundtrack: "Thessaloniki" by Haris Katsimihas and Thanos Mikroutsikos

2023 has been an eventful year full of changes. I feel that it has been so for most people around me, and I have personally changed jobs (multiplied my career options actually), changed my perspective towards various aspects of life and I have begun to implement bigger changes, that go from the present failed writing attempts, to spending time at sea.

I also decided to travel with the people that matter the most to me. Visiting Greece and the Greek islands, the Cyclades and Crete, has been a long-lasting dream of mine. I feared it would impact even more changes in my life and that I would very likely wish to move there to build my life. And right I was.

As we lost ourselves in the Greek landscapes, we reflected on where we wanted to live, as we all felt like we needed a chance of scenery (by we I mean myself and the couple of amazing friends I travelled with, and our new friend from Greek itself). We were all going through the same weird questioning, whereas even though we were very thankful for where we were in our lives, we were experiencing a lack of social connections. It felt weird because we were all living in actually quite amazing places and enjoying from gratifying accomplishments otherwise. Which made me return to the value of what call – in the heritage field – intangible culture. The geography and tangible aspects of a place around us are always important, but once weighting them against the intangible ones, it is the attributions of meaning that are attached to them that truly matter. Greece was a whole world that touched us and maybe because although it is notable for monuments and sites and tangible heritage, its cultural identity is much more embedded in the people and the cultural landscapes. So as we lost ourselves in those personal debates, immersed in Greek food and wine (which can be considered a big part of their intangible cultural heritage), we ultimately embraced the resilience that we observed from Greek people throughout history.

We breathed the fresh air from the Med – the same people have been breathing for thousands of years, we saw how the trees and vegetation have been affected by wind and sun (noticeably, as resilient and adaptable as the people). And as we took in the archaeology and historical architecture, we shared our own stories – and many laughs. My friends and I share a sense of humour that sees no limits or boundaries as to how far a joke can go. I also think of how serendipitous it was to have found a Greek person to join us that not only was knowledgeable of the country’s flora, fauna, history, myths and social aspects, but that threw himself out to an island to share our company bringing his own (yet similar to ours) humour and reflections. He was fundamental in my Greek music education, which I personally find as one of the most profound ways of connecting to a culture.

Now, as I find it a challenge to stop listening to Greek music playlists almost exclusively, I'm in the process of planning for all the changes that began to take shape during our time in Greece.I confess that I had been contemplating a change in my life for a while. Mostly, it centers around the geographical aspect, but often it feels much broader than that – yet, I just don’t know what it is. Since opening up through connection while I got lost in the Greek islands, I started to find my way and all the paths that my mind has taken are now about to start taking shape. For the last two months I have been with the most brilliant minds I know, the best caring and funny friends, and an even funnier loving mother (and sister I suppose). People who are more part of my heritage than any place. I suppose that within those meaningful social connections, I thought about society and our roles in it. In a way, my life can take many routes in a couple months from now. Literally every continent is an option – as is literally being taken with the wind by sailing to each of the continents. But as importantly, I have found that this wind needs to take me to a place where I can find connections or in the very least, bring me back to a place where I have one as deep as the ones I have with the very brilliant people I have been with over the last two months.

(To share with them again as many laughs as this:)