Tenerife 2025# Meeting The Inner Circle (Patreon)

Before I met Gary, I had a very romantic plan. I wanted to spend the entire winter in Tenerife on my own, slowly, peacefully, inviting friends one by one and enjoying long, calm quality time together.

Then Gary appeared.And suddenly we decided we needed to move to the US.

So instead of a slow, quiet winter, Gary suggested a different idea - to gather my friends in Tenerife and spend time with them there before everything changed. I didn’t get the whole winter I imagined - but I did get a condensed version of it, with many of my favorite people at once.

Before my planned departure to America, I really wanted Gary to meet my close friends. Ideally - all of them. In reality, I have more friends than rooms even in a very large villa 😁, so I split my time between Ukraine, Europe and Tenerife.

In my head, it all looked like a beautiful movie......In real life, it looked like this: 9 people under one roof - 6 women and 3 men (two of them three years old), all with different lifestyles, habits, schedules, characters and energy levels. The only common denominator was me.

And yes - it was hard.Much harder than I expected.At times it felt less like a vacation and more like project management 😁 ....I tried to make everyone bond, connect and become one big happy group - until I finally stopped trying. That’s when things actually started working. Beach walks, shared breakfasts and dinners, a trip to the volcano, a lot of wine, a pool, billiards))) and, of course, endless conversations.

I gathered everyone in one place because I thought it would be easier to say goodbye that way - instead of doing a full European farewell tour))) Turns out, “quality time with everyone at once” is a beautiful concept, but not always a realistic one. At some point, I became “The Bachelor” - choosing one person at a time, handing out an imaginary rose and going on one-on-one dates 😁 )Funny. Exhausting. Very effective.

And here’s the irony - after being completely drained and secretly dreaming of the moment everyone would finally leave so Gary and I could be alone… when the house actually became quiet - it felt strangely empty. And a little sad (

Still, this trip was something new - for me and for everyone who was there.It left a warm mark in my memory.And I truly hope - in my friends’ memories too.