You'd think you know who you are and what your life is.
In a settled life, everything seems certain.
For a long time I was living in certainty. But I felt a gaping hole in my heart.
The certainty seemed wrong for my soul, yet I could not leave it behind.

Then, when the calendar of my life turned to 31, somehow my heart went nuts. I uprooted myself out of the settled life. I had no guidebook. I had no plan. I had no job waiting for me on the other side of the planet.

I stopped choreographing. I stopped worrying about choreographing my living.

I just went off the radar of predictable routes.

I wandered aimlessly. I walked randomly. I met people out of coincidence. The uncertainty connected me to strangers with an affectionate greeting. In moments of saying hello and asking how are you, people establish trust. In trust people open their world and invite strangers in.

In the most unexpected encounters I find myself being invited to the deepest stories of individuals and communities, the heartland of their tradition and culture. People revel in spilling to me their innermost thoughts, and I revel in listening to their stories.

In listening, I think of my childhood. I think of my father who used to tell me all kinds of stories when I was a kid. I think of stories that flowed from his past life and his life in hometown community.

I listen intently to people's stories as I did to my father's.

In sharing tea and stories, our hearts are open and connected.

I am left with words that are not enough to express my gratitude. I can only say,
Çok teşekkür ederim.
شكرا جزيلا

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

First it was out of desperate need for budget-travelling.
But over time I realized a whole new door opens once you trust the universe.
I believe in that hospitality is humanity's primal instinct to take care of one another.
And trusting people is only a starting point that sprawls to a thousand paths of freedom and love.

Interests

Drawing, painting, any kind of visual art captures my heart :)

• arts
• video games
• board games
• painting
• drawing
• hitchhiking
• volunteering
• sharing
• sharing stories
• interfaith dialogue

Music, Movies, and Books

30 Seconds to Mars
Linkin Park
Poets of the Fall
Evanescence
Nightwish
Within Temptation

Jane Eyer
Shadow mountain: A memoir of wolves, a woman and wolves by Askins, Renee
Alchemist

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Trusting a traveller whom I met just 12 hours and accepting his invitation to join hitchhiking journey from Izmir to Vienna to Berlin

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, Turkey