My story
“The value of a community like that is one of the reasons I started Nine.”
— Anne
—
The story of Nine starts with me, Anne, a 34 year old Dutch girl. My whole twenties I spent working to save up money to take off for a few months each year to travel the world. I kept doing this, until in 2016, I joined a group of 50 Digital Nomads to travel the world for a year, living and working in 12 cities all over 4 continents.
When you travel the world with 50 people, you instantly become a community, one that I would even say became my family. We travelled, worked, lived, ate, explored, laughed, cried and basically did everything together. Soon we became the kind of community that let one another be exactly who they needed to be at that moment, without any judgement. I have never felt so much support from a group of people, which made me grow in ways I didn't think was possible. The value of a community like that is one of the reasons I started Nine.
“After a year of moving every month, exploring the world at the speed of a race car, I was not the only one that longed for some quiet and stability”
— Anne
—
The other thing you realise quite fast when you are travelling the world like we did, is that life as we knew it really wasn't going to cut it anymore. Knowing that you can indeed explore the world, while still having a steady income and a supporting community around you was mind-blowing to me. As a single world traveller, I always had to make concessions at the money and friends and family part. Being able to be a free spirit that wants to discover the world, without losing these important aspects of life, is another big reason Nine was born.
After a year of moving every month, exploring the world at the speed of a race car, I was not the only one that longed for some quiet and stability. But it just didn't mean we wanted to go back to our old lives, because we now all had experienced how life could be. It was time to shape our lives exactly the way we wanted, without any restrictions or the chance we would burn ourselves down.
“Right after they left I adopted a street dog, Lara, the love of my life.”
— Anne
For me that meant finding a place where I could still surround myself with these inspiring humans called Digital Nomads, but where I could do what I do best: making people feel at home in a beautifully designed place.
I decided to look for a property somewhere in Spain, to open a Coliving space, a concept that back in 2018 was still quite unknown. I found my dream in La Orotava, a historical town on the North side of the Spanish island Tenerife. I moved into the building in June 2018 and invited friend and everyone in my nomad community to come help renovate the space. 26 people showed up, 19 of which I had never met. In two months we worked on the house and started exploring my new home. Right after they left I adopted a street dog, Lara, the love of my life. In September, only 3 months after I moved in, Nine Coliving opened its doors. And after a slow first two months, I found myself in Tenerife’s high season and with an almost full house for months. It stayed like this. My team has grown from just me and a cleaning lady to a team of 7 amazing humans, we went from 10 rooms to 14 rooms and we are fully booked months in advance now. This despides the fact that we went from being the only Coliving on the island, to sharing our world with at least 8 other Colivings on the island at the start of 2022.
At the end of 2021 I took a moment to look back at the last 3,5 years and at all that I have accomplished. And even though I am proud of all the professional accomplishments I have achieved, the real magic lies in the life I have created for myself.
“I can not describe the magic that living in community brings me, but I will try. ”
— Anne
Us humans seem to have forgotten that we have the power to change our lives any time we want to. This doesn’t mean the choice is always easy, but that makes the reward usually worth it even more.
I live on an incredible island. It’s nature fills me up every single day. The people are kind, they live to enjoy life and I have never feel like an outsider.
I live in community, something I will never ever not do in my entire life anymore. I can not describe the magic that living in community brings me, but I will try.
I get to do what I love every day. I am in service of others and therefor of the world. I didn’t know how much I needed that until I got here.
The next step in my professional life, is to take more people on my journey. Sharing about Coliving and Living in Community so that more people get to experience the incredible life that I live. I hope my story will inspired you to think of what small AND big changes you can to make in your life today. Start moving towards the life you desire. Remember that there is always something you can do.
If you want to do more with me, please have a look at my other pages. I offer a course on How to Start a Coliving and I am available as a speaker on Coliving and Living in Community.
You can also follow me on instagram @annekuppens and of course @ninecoliving
I hope to see you there.
With love, Anne
