Hi, My name is Maartje. I’m 23 years old and was diagnosed with coeliac disease when I was 2 years old. When I was young I used to be very shy and quiet, until my parents decided to send me to the Dutch youth summer camp. I had just turned 16, and for the first time in my life I was not the only coeliac person. After spending the week with a really nice group of people around my own age, I felt like I really changed. Suddenly I became a lot less shy and quiet, all because for once I did not feel different!
Since then I took part in a lot more activities and summercamps, and at those activities I met plenty of new people, and made some really good friends. I think it has to be about 4, 5 years ago that I met my friend Annefleur at a summercamp. We started spending more time together and going to other activities together. At a beer tasting, I think around 3 years ago, we met Carly, who is now also part of our small friend group. We meet up regularly to have dinner, drink gluten free beer (as I’m writing this I’m still a little tired from our gluten free beer night we had last night), and last August we went to Cologne for a weekend. There’s even plans to go to Italy together in the summer of 2020!
Besides the Dutch camps I also participated in the international CYE camps a few times. I went to the one in Cyprus in 2016, Alicante in 2017 and last summer we organised it in the Netherlands! Because of these camps I made friends all over Europe, which is ideal if you need tips when you go abroad for a weekend! A few months ago I had dinner with two Spanish friends who were visiting Amsterdam during a round trip through Europe, for Santi’s gluten free blog: Glutenfree Adventures. A really useful blog if you need tips for your vacation destination!
Also, there is a CYE conference every year, every year in a different European city. Last September I went to Budapest with Nathalie (a girl I met via my roommate and coincidentally is a coeliac too) to meet about 20 other youth of the coeliac societies and talk about the future of CYE. A really awesome weekend, which also brought me new friendships. These friendships led to spending a weekend last December in Cologne, when we visited the Christmas Market with a few people I met during the conference!
Lastly, I would like to say that, how annoying having to eat gluten free could be, I actually feel blessed to be a coeliac. I have done so many awesome things and met so many great people, I would have no idea what my life would be like without coeliac disease. And honestly, I don’t even want to know that, I am just happy the way it is now!