Underneath most e-mail, I’ve sent the past years there was a question: ‘What’s the value of dreams, if you don’t try to realise them?” Something I really believe in. It is good to have dreams, but it’s even better to try to achieve them. But when I looked at my own e-mails, I wondered, did I also live by this myself? I also have a dream, but do I try to realise it? Each time I get off the plane in Longyearbyen and step onboard one of Oceanwide’s expedition cruise ships it feels like I’ve come home. But each summer I also have to leave ‘home’ early because my teaching job is waiting for me in the Netherlands… And guiding in Antarctica is really not an option as I ‘only’ have two weeks Christmas holiday, too short to make the trip down south.

Last year I told myself I had to make a decision. Either I would try to live my dream and try at least for a year to make a living as a guide, or I would have to give up dreaming and keep on combining teaching with a bit of guiding in summer. As I knew I would keep on regretting the second option, I decided to give it a try. This decision was made a lot easier as my school allowed me to take one year of unpaid leave, so I can really try it for one year.

So now it’s nearly time for me to start living my dream. Only a few weeks of teaching left and then I’m off to Spitsbergen. After hopefully a nice summer with some very special trips, I come home in autumn. And a few months later I hope to leave for a nice Antarctic season… I’m looking forward to what will be a very special year for me. Will it just be a year and will I go back to my also really nice school or that I keep living this dream for a while?

But for now, I’m all excited what next year will have in store for me. I hope to make many nice pictures and plan to keep you all updated with all things I see. That’s also the thing with dreams, you never know what will happen next…