september 20, 2022

Who do you live your life for? - Julia & Theo

One of my favorite things about life is that we have the freedom to choose our own journey, and there are unlimited possibilities. Sometimes you just need a little inspiration, so I reached out to our amazing, adventurous friends Julia and Theo to ask what they think.

Hi lovely humans! We're Julia and Theo, two adventurers born in a small town in Transylvania, Romania. The story of how we met is actually quite funny. Our very first interactions happened because we used to go volunteering at the same organization during high school. We exchanged our socials for communication purposes if we were to work on the same projects and that was that. I (Julia) am two years older than Theo, and I was heading for university in London (over 2000km away) while he was still in high school, back in Romania.

This is where things get interesting. I studied Fashion Styling in London during my first year there but I didn’t really click with the uni, nor the area I was living in. Being a foreigner in a new country, I ended up spending a lot of my time alone and feeling isolated. I experienced homesickness so I didn’t really enjoy London (which is ironic, because now it’s one of my favourite cities). One day, feeling nostalgic, I hit upon a beautiful photo of a mountain from my hometown (shot by Theo, of course) and boldly decided that I’ll express my gratitude and leave an appreciation comment. And Theo being Theo (a very friendly, social human being) engaged in a conversation with me, sharing more snaps of his trip with me. It felt like we both really liked getting “out there” and exploring so once we started talking we never really stopped (for real). In the meantime, I decided to quit the uni I was attending and start a new one (still in London) in Anthropology. But with a few months to go before starting uni again, I returned home for the Summer, and we started spending a lot of time together rock climbing, going on local spontaneous road trips, and really… became a couple before we could define it. Initially, because of my studies, we had to do long distance for a year. However, Theo decided to join me in London to study business and we’ve been living and traveling together ever since.

What does traveling mean to you?

Traveling is something really important and close to us as it ignites one of our top values - “Freedom” (both physical and mental). The thought that this world is so wide, diverse and that there’s so much one can experience, excites us to our core. We want to see it all, experience it all… and what better way to do it than together. Our early conversations before being a couple were around travel photography and different places we’d like to experience. That’s how we really connected with one another. When we travel we get to find different pieces of ourselves in the places we visit. We get to grow both individually and as a couple. Traveling has taught us just how beautiful diversity is, how different people experience life, and how to be kinder and more patient with ourselves and others. Once we finished uni, we knew that we want to be out and about as much as we possibly can. This is why we started a tech start-up and why we focus on photo-video collaborations in the places we travel to - so we don’t have to be “location restricted”. We also “invest” all our money on travel and experiences- we don’t own much as we don’t like spending a lot on material things.

Your lifestyle is very out of the ordinary and different from what society often expects. What inspired you to live this way? and what keeps you going in moments of doubt?

We like to “construct” our lives around our wildest dreams. And our dreams come from a lot of introspection and working on ourselves… getting to know what we value most. Oftentimes, society shapes what we think we want most - getting a corporate high paid job, owning a home, owning a car, having the latest gadgets, pleasing everyone around us and the list can go on and on. And it’s only when we delve deeper, strip ourselves of all “expectations” and ask ourselves “what would truly make me happy?” that we find our true answer. If you allow your inner child to question everything surrounding you, that’s when you will figure out what you truly desire. When you reach that point, even in moments of doubt, you know you wouldn’t choose the alternative - striving for a life on other people’s terms that brings you no meaning or fulfillment. For us, that “dream life” means being able to travel the world, explore new cultures, all while sharing our love for photography and videography and sharing value through what we do. It’s not always the most comfortable journey to be on, as there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding our choice, but we believe it’s a price worth paying.

What are your dreams and goals for the future?

At this point in life, everything seems to be at the very “early stages”. We just launched our tech start-up - amprenta.co and we’re learning our way through it, while we are also establishing ourselves as photographers and videographers. Our dream is to have Amprenta in a stage where we’re able to provide value to our community while traveling the world and fulfilling our passion for travel content creation. Life can get pretty messy when you have a start-up so now, we travel with every opportunity we have, though not as much as we’d like. Our goal is to reach a stage where we’re able to always be on the road. We hope that in the near future we’ll be able to convert a van into a campervan and work and travel all over Europe.

What is your best advice for people who are too scared to follow their passion because of other people’s expectations?

We think that at the end of the day you really have to ask yourself, “Who do I live my life for?”. Is it society? Your parents? Your “friends”? or… Yourself? As dramatic as it may sound, imagine you are on your death bed, reflecting on the life you lived. What will you regret most? Will it be not pursuing a career your parents have imagined for you? Or not taking a leap of faith in yourself to pursue your dream life?

If you become too preoccupied with what others think of you and your journey, you will never get to experience life to the fullest. So quit that job. Start that business. Take that art class. Sing in the streets. Apply for med school for the 3rd time if you must. Whatever truly brings meaning to you. That’s what you should live for. When you take a chance on yourself, there’s nothing important you’ll lose. You’ll actually end up gaining more. You’ll find like-minded people, you’ll be happy to wake up in the morning and get over moments of hardship easier because you will have something worth fighting for. What’s the worst that can happen? You get a “safe” job until you’re able to get back up and start fighting for your dream all over again.