?”There is always a story to tell, behind every picture. There is always a light that shines forth to guide every step. There is always something unique behind every destination”. ? (Clementine Affana).
My name is Clementine Affana, and I am the proud founder of Travel with Clem, a unique, one of its kind travel website that aims at sharing travel adventures, unveiling travel tips from experience and inspiring every single reader to seek to travel more and ultimately, live his/her passion. My zeal for living a fulfilled and fulfilling life has also motivated me to develop another website, Bonheur-Sante-Succès (which in English means “Happiness – Health – Success), the purpose of which is to motivate, guide and provide coaching specifically for people who want to live a goal-oriented, success-driven and happiness-filled life.
Traveling had always been my passion since I was a little girl. In fact, inspired by my mother, I dreamed of finding a job that would make me travel the world. In 2004, my mom offered my 2 siblings and I a trip to Germany for the summer holidays and that adventure definitely sparked the “flame of adventure” in my life.
I’ve always wanted to get involved in a career that would make me travel the world, but I also wanted to be a Doctor. Some of you might say “Well, if you join Doctors without Borders, then you can be a doctor that travels the world”. True, but I didn’t want to have to wait to join Doctors without Borders before I could travel the world! What if I never ended up being a doctor? What if, once a doctor, I had no time to travel the world? What if I just changed my mind?
The idea of having to wait for more than 5 years of my life before I could live my passion just didn’t sound right to me. And who knows, perhaps after those five years, I wouldn’t have been alive (luckily, by the grace of God, I am, and able to launch this website).
When I entered medical school, new realities progressively sunk in.
?Spending long hours (and all-nighters) studying made me realize how easy it is to get sucked in hard-work and not even think about enjoying your life because you’re so caught up in finding new ways to succeed.
?Seeing people dying everyday (be it sudden or not) made me realize how quickly everything you are and all you have can disappear in the blink of an eye.
?Seeing older people, at the peak of their careers being diagnosed with chronic diseases made me realize that you can live a long life, consider yourself successful, but none of these could last if you were not healthy.
All these realities gave me a renewed perspective on so many aspects of my life, and from that point on, I decided to start seizing the day: I decided to live.
I traveled the most while in Medical School, and these have been some of the best years of my life. My eyes have seen, my ears have heard and my feet have made me walked through lands I never thought I would be blessed and privileged enough to discover.
I have never taken a vacation, yet I have travelled more than I thought I ever would. In fact, I have managed to visited 27 countries so far (with 11 countries visited in 2017). It’s a little about 14% of the world, more than what the average person has seen or will ever see.
So let me tell you the stories of the places that I have seen and where I’ve been, with the hope that you will feel inspired and someday, go there too. And when you prepare to go, be it today or tomorrow, check out the unique travel tips that I am freely sharing with you, and share them with the rest of your friends, so they can enhance their trips too.
I truly hope that this website brings you some inspiration. May you soon realize how wonderful life is when you open yourself to the world.
“Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.” — Peter Hoeg
Adventurously,
Clem.☀