The Ongoing Journey of Becoming

I have always enjoyed travelling—

from one-day road trips

to two-week explorations of foreign places,

to longer journeys that leave a deeper mark.

Whether close to home or far beyond it,

travel has a way of awakening the senses.

It sharpens our awareness,

loosens our certainties,

and quietly reshapes how we see ourselves

and the world.

As Marcel Proust so beautifully put it,

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,

but in having new eyes.”

This time, though, I’m on a different

kind of journey—a journey of becoming.

While I still enjoy travelling across oceans

in search of wonder,

as I age I’m increasingly drawn to

travelling inward,

through the mind and the soul,

where beauty is subjective,

truths are inconvenient,

questions grow more meaningful and more challenging,

and those who sense there’s more

begin to explore what it means to be human.

This site exists for those who feel the quiet pull

of becoming—

a journey toward something truer,

freer, and more honest.

It’s a space to explore the thoughts we don’t always say out loud,

the seasons that change us,

and the questions that refuse neat answers.

Here, we wander through what it feels like

to be human—

through experience, curiously in search of understanding rather than certainty—

without fixing, performing, or pretending,

just noticing, learning, and

becoming along the way.

Journey with me—this path gets bumpy at times, but the views are spectacular.

My Story

My story began long before I was born — with a poet in Sutherland, 1815.

Writing has always been part of who I am.
It’s how I make sense of the world—

how I feel my way through life.

Perhaps that isn’t surprising.

My great-great-grandfather,

Daniel Christiaan Esterhuyse,

was born in 1815 in the rugged district of Sutherland.

After the heartbreaking loss of his first child, he turned to poetry, pouring his grief into words.

That lament became the opening piece

of Dertig Liederen (1861),

and through this work,

Esterhuyse came to be recognised as the poet of the first poetry book in Afrikaans.

Although the language of his time was still closely tied to Dutch,

his writing already carried the early rhythm and spirit of what Afrikaans would become.

Today, I carry that legacy differently.
While I do sometimes write poems,

my greatest love lies in writing

about life itself—

about how I experience it as a woman,

with my soul, and through my own eyes.

For me, writing is not just about

words on a page.

It is about feeling.

About connection.
About offering a glimpse

into the world as I live and breathe it—

and perhaps helping someone else feel a little less alone in theirs.

Unplugged Thoughts

‹ Back

The Art of Becoming: Growth, Guts, and the Deep End

A love letter to the shapeshifters, the reinventors, and the ones who dare to leap.

On 1 July 2014, I walked away from the predictable. After 17 years in the corporate world, I closed the chapter that told me who I was… and opened one that asked me who I wanted to become.

That wasn’t just a career pivot. It was a declaration: I will not live a life written by someone else’s pen.

I didn’t have a roadmap. I had instinct.
I didn’t have guarantees. I had grit.
I didn’t have certainty—but I had something better:
the quiet knowing that if I jumped, I’d find a way to fly.

Because when comfort zones become cages, the only way forward is through the fire of transformation.

And here’s the thing no one tells you about diving into the unknown:

Spoiler alert: You don’t grow gills.

You learn to swim—fiercely, messily, breathlessly—because deep down, you know that sinking isn’t an option.
You survive.
And, if you stick with it long enough, you thrive.

⸻

Growth Doesn’t Always Feel Like Growth

We romanticize the idea of reinvention.
But the truth is, growth rarely shows up wearing glitter.

Sometimes it feels like confusion.
Or isolation.
Or self-doubt so loud it echoes.

In the early days of my leap, I didn’t have a grand plan. I had fragments. Sparks.
A hunger to reconnect with parts of myself that had been set aside during my corporate years—years that shaped me, taught me, and gave me the foundation to leap from.

I needed time to breathe. To reflect. To remember what lit me up inside.

And slowly, from that quiet pause, things began to take shape.

⸻

The Wild Ride That Followed

I launched my own marketing consulting business—scary, empowering, liberating.
I stepped into a completely new industry—telecoms—and found a voice I didn’t know I had.
I collaborated with international teams, learned new skills, and studied part-time to keep evolving.
I even found myself deep in the high-octane world of rally racing, because sometimes your growth requires horsepower, even if you’re not the one behind the wheel of the rally car.

And somewhere along the way, I picked up a paintbrush.
I started writing. I began blogging.
I found new ways to tell my story—not for validation, but because putting words to your journey makes it real.
It anchors your transformation.

⸻

Listening to Your Soul’s Whispers

Leaving your comfort zone doesn’t start with a bold announcement.
It starts with a whisper.

A nagging feeling.
A knowing.
A “this isn’t it” that won’t leave you alone.

Listening to that voice—your soul’s compass—is an act of defiance in a world obsessed with certainty. But it’s also the most honest thing you’ll ever do.

When you leap, you lose things.

Predictability.

Familiarity.

Sometimes even people who don’t understand your new path.

But you gain you. Your real self. The one that isn’t limited by job titles or external approval.

⸻

The Real Measure of Success

Looking back now—11 years later—I don’t measure success by the logos I’ve worked with or the accolades I’ve received.
I measure it by the expansion of my inner world.

By the resilience I’ve built.
By the risks I’ve taken.
By the days I kept going even when it was hard.
By the people I’ve met who challenged me, inspired me, changed me.
By the woman I’ve become.

And yes, some days still wobble.
Growth isn’t a straight line.
But I no longer fear the deep end.
I’ve proven to myself that I can swim.

⸻

Predictable? Never Heard of Her.

Naomi Campbell once said: “I like words like transformation, reinvention, and chameleon. Because one word I don’t like is predictable.”

Same, Naomi. Same.

Unpredictability isn’t chaos—it’s alchemy.
Yes, it comes with impulsiveness. With emotion. With wild nights of doubt and even wilder mornings of “I’ve got this.”
But like every coin, there’s a flip side:
truth, movement, the raw spark of becoming.

⸻

Burn the Script, Wear the Crown

I like people who have a sense of individuality.
I love expression. I love awkward. I love imperfect.

Because that’s natural. That’s real.

In a world that worships polish, I chose expression over perfection.
I chose to be real over being right.
To evolve in public. To shapeshift boldly.

To wear contradiction like a crown.

⸻

The Absence of Wanting

Here’s something else I’ve learned: Getting what you want doesn’t bring lasting happiness.
It brings temporary relief—which is just the fleeting absence of wanting.

But we’re not here to chase relief.
We’re here to sow, not just wish.
Because life responds to seeds, not needs.

So plant your ideas.
Nurture your growth.
And let the rest unfold.

⸻

Transformation Is an Unruly House Guest

It doesn’t ask for permission.
It doesn’t wait for a formal invitation.
It shows up—emotional, messy, inconvenient.

And if that makes you uncomfortable… good.
Growth usually does.

But that’s the whole point.
You’re not here to stay the same.
You’re here to evolve, shapeshift, contradict yourself, and keep becoming until you feel more YOU than ever before.

⸻

So Here’s My Message to You

If you’re standing on the edge of your comfort zone, wondering whether to leap—

If something inside you keeps whispering, “There’s more to life than this”—

If you’ve been waiting for the right time, the perfect plan, the guaranteed outcome—

Stop waiting.

There is no perfect time.
There is only now.
There is only the next brave step.
There is only your one wild, precious, shape-shifting, soul-expanding life—
—and the courage to live it fully.

Transformation doesn’t ask for permission.
It shows up raw, emotional, inconvenient—and utterly necessary.
It calls you to burn the script, switch lanes mid-sentence, and become the version of you that doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but your own damn soul.

The Ongoing Journey of Becoming

My Story

Unplugged Thoughts

The Art of Becoming: Growth, Guts, and the Deep End

A love letter to the shapeshifters, the reinventors, and the ones who dare to leap.

On 1 July 2014, I walked away from the predictable. After 17 years in the corporate world, I closed the chapter that told me who I was… and opened one that asked me who I wanted to become.

That wasn’t just a career pivot. It was a declaration: I will not live a life written by someone else’s pen.

I didn’t have a roadmap. I had instinct. I didn’t have guarantees. I had grit. I didn’t have certainty—but I had something better: the quiet knowing that if I jumped, I’d find a way to fly.

Because when comfort zones become cages, the only way forward is through the fire of transformation.

And here’s the thing no one tells you about diving into the unknown:

Spoiler alert: You don’t grow gills.

You learn to swim—fiercely, messily, breathlessly—because deep down, you know that sinking isn’t an option. You survive. And, if you stick with it long enough, you thrive.

⸻

Growth Doesn’t Always Feel Like Growth

We romanticize the idea of reinvention. But the truth is, growth rarely shows up wearing glitter.

Sometimes it feels like confusion. Or isolation. Or self-doubt so loud it echoes.

In the early days of my leap, I didn’t have a grand plan. I had fragments. Sparks. A hunger to reconnect with parts of myself that had been set aside during my corporate years—years that shaped me, taught me, and gave me the foundation to leap from.

I needed time to breathe. To reflect. To remember what lit me up inside.

And slowly, from that quiet pause, things began to take shape.

⸻

The Wild Ride That Followed

And somewhere along the way, I picked up a paintbrush. I started writing. I began blogging. I found new ways to tell my story—not for validation, but because putting words to your journey makes it real. It anchors your transformation.

⸻

Listening to Your Soul’s Whispers

Leaving your comfort zone doesn’t start with a bold announcement. It starts with a whisper.

A nagging feeling. A knowing. A “this isn’t it” that won’t leave you alone.