American in the Netherlands: Life Updates and Future Blog Posts

“Hi everyone, my name is Ava and I am an American living in the Netherlands!” This is how I start all of my YouTube videos. I posted my first video a few months into the Covid pandemic, and safe to say that slowly changed my life. Since then, I’ve also taken to posting on Instagram, and between the two platforms, hundreds of thousands of people watch my videos each month. That is a number I cannot fully comprehend. And I’ve always been good at math.

Because of the sheer number of views and interactions, I’ve prioritized posting videos to share my experiences with you all. But my close friends know that sitting behind a laptop with a cup of coffee besides me on an overcast day is my preferred setting. Which is strange because I have absolutely no problem filming myself running my mouth for 20 mins at a time and posting that on the internet. But that is not the same as truly bringing you along with me on my journey. Our journey. And that is why I’ve decided to pick up blogging again. It is so much more wholesome than starting a 30 second clip only to scroll past it 3 seconds later because we are now so used to finding instant gratification.

So let’s pick up where we left off, shall we? Here are some life updates in quick succession:

Sara is now my Dutch girlfriend-turned-wife.

I never thought it would happen but I have also gotten used to saying “wife”!

We bought our first house and feel great about it even though we have no idea what we’re doing!

We moved to the suburbs and feel okay about it! That was an American “okay”, which essentially means that we’re not sure how we feel about it yet. Or at least I don’t. Just because we’re married doesn’t mean we are required to share every single emotion.

I recently got Dutch citizenship!

And the big one… we’re having a baby! Soon! Scarily soon. And we have no idea what we’re doing.

I’ll talk about all of these updates individually in separate blog posts because there is a lot to share. Going through these life changes in a different country adds a whole other spin to these experiences that I naïvely didn’t see coming to this extent. It’s mostly good things, some challenges, and dreams that remain open.

Hope you’ll follow along! In the meantime, I’ll refill my coffee mug and get to writing.

Until next time —Ava.