How I met my wife (31-year timeline)
We are high-school sweethearts.
That sounds good, but here’s what actually happened:
Super cute girl: Manon. In my class.
She doesn’t even remember I was there for most of those early days.
I noticed her, though. 😉
I was pretty awkward in my teens.
Once dyed my hair yellow to look like Dolph Lundgren in “Red Scorpion.” Metallica blaring on a Walkman, blazing through traffic on my mountain bike.
Some (read: most) might have called me antisocial.
No idea what the ‘girl-thing’ was about.
Somehow, I made it into the ‘friend zone’
… and got stuck there for about 5 years.
Yeah. I guess I’m kinda slow that way. 😆
When she finally got fed up with all the waiting, she picked me up in a disco on New Year’s Eve. True story.
We’ve been together ever since. Over 26 years.
Highlights:
1999: I enlisted to become a Commando and ‘forgot’ to first discuss it with her. Great start. It meant moving to the other side of the country, but somehow she stuck with me. She has excellent taste. 😃
2005: Manon closed her gift shops in the Netherlands.
I quit Special Forces after becoming an officer and completing 4 deployments (= away from home a lot).
We moved to Spain. Grew our villa rental company like crazy.
2007: Our lovely daughter Leyla Coenen was born.
2009: Decided that the business would serve our lifestyle, not the other way around.
2012: Started our digital nomad life before it was a thing.
Over 13 years (and counting) of travel, adventure, and lifetime memories as a family.
2018: Manon became the Masters World Champion Downhill Mountain Bike 🥳 (and went on to win it 4 more times, including 2025). 🥇 🥇 🥇 🥇 🥇
2021: We took over a tiny webshop with health foods Spiruella Superfoods and scaled it to the moon.
2025: Having dinner with friends last week, they told us:
“We don’t know other couples that have stayed together so happily for that many years.”
1 Decision: We put Lifestyle first. Living life according to OUR Priorities.
Happy, healthy, wealthy.
No time stress
No health stress
No financial stress
Over 11,315 days.
Worth it. ❤️
PS: Enjoy this?
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