The Path Back to Myself: Why I Design Transformative Experiences

I grew up in a tiny town in the Netherlands — the kind of place where the world feels very far away. I would stare at photos of mountains, jungles, and long winding trails and wonder what it must be like to stand there. Not just to visit, but to feel it. To feel alive in a way I didn’t yet have words for.

But I never believed those places were meant for someone like me.I wasn’t special. I wasn’t adventurous. I wasn’t the kind of person who climbs mountains or crosses countries. At least, that’s what I told myself.

And yet, even then, there was a quiet question always humming in the background of my life:

Why do some people feel alive… and others don’t?

Why do some glow with purpose… and others feel numb?

What actually makes a life meaningful?

I didn’t know it then, but those questions would become the compass of my entire life.

Learning to Design Experiences Before I Knew the Name for It

My first job was at a restaurant. I didn’t care about the menu or the routine — I cared about the experience. Why did one table leave glowing, while another left unchanged? How could I create a moment someone would actually remember?

I didn’t have language for it then, but I was already learning the craft I would spend my life pursuing.

At university, that instinct finally had a name.

One course — Imagineering — cracked something open inside me.

This wasn’t just a vague passion.

This was a field. A profession.

A science of intentionally crafting experiences that transform people.

I walked out of that classroom knowing exactly who I wanted to become.

Vancouver — My First True Transformation

My first big leap was a five-month exchange in Vancouver. I left my tiny Dutch town and stepped into a world that felt impossibly vast.

And something extraordinary happened.

I changed.

Not a little bit — fundamentally.

I went from feeling small, uncertain, and ordinary…

to feeling open, energized, connected, alive.

I made friends effortlessly.

Opportunities appeared everywhere.

I felt like the most authentic version of myself — someone I hadn’t met before.

It remains one of the greatest periods of my life.

For the first time, I understood something essential:

Transformation isn’t random.

It happens when you place yourself in the right kind of experience.

Novelty.

Immersion.

Connection.

Challenge.

Purpose.

I didn’t have the framework yet, but I had the spark.

The Tourism Industry Showed Me What Was Missing

I chased that spark into the tourism industry — planning tours, designing travel experiences, organizing group adventures.

But something was wrong.

Tourism wasn’t transformation.

It was entertainment.

You can put 50 people on a bus and give them the same itinerary…

and they’ll all walk away with a different experience.

Some feel alive.

Others are simply “checking it off.”

What I deeply wanted to create wasn’t that.

I didn’t want to sell vacations.

I wanted to design the kinds of experiences that change who you are.

But I didn’t yet know how.

New Zealand — The Experience That Brought Me

Back to Myself

Years later, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I spent a year living in New Zealand. And there, I found the next piece of the puzzle.

For one month, we hiked 500 km of the Te Araroa — mountains, valleys, rivers, huts, storms, silence (and blisters).

And again… I transformed.

Living simply.

Walking all day.

Carrying everything on my back.

Moving with purpose.

Feeling my body grow strong.

Feeling my mind settle.

Feeling myself return.

It was the same feeling I’d had in Vancouver — only deeper, older, wilder.

I realized something important:

Nature + simplicity + challenge = truth.

You learn who you are when life is stripped down to its essentials.

But then life moved on.

The Drift Into the “Supposed Life”

Back in the modern world, I slowly drifted into the life I was “supposed” to live.

Mortgage.

Promotions.

Two kids in daycare for 40 hours a week.

Two cars.

Meal prepping.

Commutes.

Meetings.

Stress.

Repeat.

I kept telling myself it was temporary.

Just a phase.

Just until we earned more, saved more, built more.

But deep down, I knew the truth:

No lifestyle upgrade was going to save me from a life I didn’t want. And believe me, I tried. I bought a very expensive blender. It turns out you cannot, in fact, blend away existential dread.

I wasn’t burned out.

I was disconnected — from myself, from my nature, from that part of me that comes

alive in the world.

Ireland — The Leap That Changed Everything

We made a decision — one that felt reckless and impossible and absolutely right.

Sell everything.

Pack one suitcase each.

Leave Canada.

Move to Ireland with no plan, no job, no house, but a belief.

It was my third major transformative experience.

And it worked — not because things were easy, but because we changed.

The simplicity, the uncertainty, the openness of it all forced me to reconnect with the person I had become through Vancouver and the Te Araroa.

Slowly, I felt myself come back to life.

This wasn’t escape.

It was a homecoming.

The Pattern Revealed — And The Explorer’s Lens Was Born

It was only after Ireland that everything clicked.

There was a pattern behind all my biggest transformations:

Novelty + Immersion + Challenge + Integration= a new version of you.

This wasn’t luck.

It wasn’t magic.

It was a structure — a framework for transformation.

And for the first time in my life, I realized:

I could design these experiences.

I could teach this.

I could help others step into their own transformations.

Not tourism.

Not itineraries.

Not bucket lists.

But true, intentional, life-shifting adventures.

Experiences that help people remember who they are.

That insight became The Explorer’s Lens.

Why I Do This

I don’t do this because I escaped a cage.

I do this because my entire life has been shaped by immersive, meaningful experiences that transformed me — again and again.

I do this because I know first-hand:

You don’t need a miracle.

You don’t need permission.

You don’t need to feel “special.”

You just need to step into a new experience — one that challenges you, awakens you, strips away the noise, and reconnects you with your own aliveness.

And the experience will give you exactly what you need, even if you don’t know what that is yet.

I hope The Explorer’s Lens helps you find your next transformative adventure — the kind that stays with you for the rest of your life.

Your story is waiting.

Are you ready to begin?