The Threshold of the Alps
It was late April, the day after my 24th birthday. I was driving through Switzerland, the highway slicing through valleys, while towering mountains rose on either side toward snow-capped peaks. Waterfalls cascaded down the cliffs, catching the glint of the sun. The sky was a spotless blue, but I was blind to all that beauty.
I was stuck in a traffic jam in front of the Gotthard Tunnel, the longest tunnel in Europe, carving a path through the Alps to the south. Beside me sat the man I had loved for five years; we were on our way to a well-deserved holiday at Lake Maggiore in Italy. As the car crawled toward the tunnel entrance, our conversation drifted in a direction I desperately wanted to avoid. But I had to know the truth.
Emerging Into a New Reality
When the sun finally struck the windshield on the other side of the mountain, my face was wet with salt. The inevitable had happened: our relationship was over.
Deep down, I had already known; the signs had been loud and clear. My fear of the future had become my reality. The fire between us had died out, and a new flame for another woman had been lit in his heart. He hadn’t possessed the courage to tell me, forcing me to pry the truth out of him. Yet, we kept driving toward our destination, convinced we still "needed" this vacation.
A Ghost Couple by the Shore
Being in that beautiful place together was agonizing. The enchanting blue lake and the stunning mountain scenery stood in harsh contrast to the anger, defeat, and despair I felt inside. We stayed by the lake for a time, a ghost couple haunting a beautiful shore, until the irony became unbearable.
There was nothing left to do but drive home—back to a daily reality that would never be the same again.
The Envelope
Once home, however, a new world began to open. In the mailbox, I found a thick envelope from the Rotterdam University of the Arts. For the past year, I had traveled to Rotterdam every Saturday for the preparatory program—the best gift I had ever given myself.
Now, I held the response to my application for the full-time program in my hands. It was an escape from a life that no longer suited me.
The Symbol of the Tunnel
That letter changed everything. I left behind a relationship, an apartment, and a job to move into a student room and return to my studies.
That passage through the Alps, through a dark 17 km long tunnel, became a symbol of rebirth. It was a painful, confronting experience, but in hindsight, it was one of the most beautiful turning points of my life.
We all face our own 'Gotthard Tunnels'—those dark, long passages where it feels like the light will never return. Have you ever had a moment where a painful ending turned out to be the beginning of something beautiful? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.
