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Dominican Republic real estate

The Dominican Republic has always held a special place in my heart. Not simply because I have spent a lot of time there, but because it is where my story began.

My mother is Dominican and, because of my father's work in South America, my parents eventually decided to build their life in the Dominican Republic. That is where I was born, and where I spent the first years of my childhood.

I may not be the person people immediately picture when they think of someone with Dominican roots, but the culture has been part of my life from the very beginning. Spanish was the language I grew up speaking, Dominican family life surrounded me, and many of the customs, values and experiences that shaped my childhood came from the Caribbean.

When I was around four years old, my parents decided that the Netherlands would offer me a better foundation for school and would also give me the opportunity to grow up knowing the Dutch side of my family. From that point onward, the Netherlands became home. I went to school there and, after starting life primarily speaking Spanish, eventually became fluent in Dutch and English as well.

But the Dominican Republic never disappeared from my life.

Most summers meant going back. Seeing family, returning to familiar places and experiencing the country not simply as a visitor, but as somewhere that had always been part of who I was. The United States also became part of that international upbringing through family on my father's side.

Growing up between different countries, languages and cultures gave me a perspective that I only fully came to appreciate later.

I understand how exciting the Dominican Republic can look to someone arriving from abroad. But I also understand how unfamiliar it can feel once you have to make serious decisions there.