"I let myself dream because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew perfectly well that reality would hit me soon enough and I’d need to start looking for a job in my native country."
Ha, different countries and different story, but I relate to that.
This is a fascinating story about your experience emigrating to the US! It's interesting how you compare the initial "dream" of moving to a new country with the reality of the challenges you faced. I can see how exciting it must have been to get accepted to all those universities, but also how tough it must have been to leave everything behind. It's a great point about how people who haven't emigrated often don't understand the internal struggles of adapting to a new culture.
So many great quotes in here Monica, here are two that really hit home:
"Having no social threads older than a few weeks or months. The different cultural norms and office politics. Learning the acceptable customs and especially what is unacceptable. All that is oversimplified. Loneliness is downplayed. All hardships are trivialized by the non-immigrants, in favor of economic opportunity. The mirage of having more money dwarfs any other hardship in the eyes of the ones who never left."
"The next biggest expectation is that you lose the right to complain. Reminiscing about our tribal times when a leaver was either endangered or pitied, you’re seen partly as a traitor and partly as the lucky bastard who got out."
fabulous insight! Oh so much truth in your words! I think there is an added layer of luxury, luck AND internal conflict in considering your new home even BETTER than your original home.
I could restack every sentence! Such incredible insights that are so similar to many I have heard.
Personally, When I complained I was told “we told you, come back life is better here” 🙄a very different experience leaving a country so many are trying to migrate to ( so I returned as well just to realise it’s not as great as people told me when I complained about living abroad haha)
Guess the grass is always greener on the other side when we have the freedom of choice
"I let myself dream because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew perfectly well that reality would hit me soon enough and I’d need to start looking for a job in my native country."
Ha, different countries and different story, but I relate to that.
This is a fascinating story about your experience emigrating to the US! It's interesting how you compare the initial "dream" of moving to a new country with the reality of the challenges you faced. I can see how exciting it must have been to get accepted to all those universities, but also how tough it must have been to leave everything behind. It's a great point about how people who haven't emigrated often don't understand the internal struggles of adapting to a new culture.
“The paradox of the migrant: feeling homeless and homesick at the same time.” This is so true, I’m also homesick for a place that doesn’t exist!
So many great quotes in here Monica, here are two that really hit home:
"Having no social threads older than a few weeks or months. The different cultural norms and office politics. Learning the acceptable customs and especially what is unacceptable. All that is oversimplified. Loneliness is downplayed. All hardships are trivialized by the non-immigrants, in favor of economic opportunity. The mirage of having more money dwarfs any other hardship in the eyes of the ones who never left."
"The next biggest expectation is that you lose the right to complain. Reminiscing about our tribal times when a leaver was either endangered or pitied, you’re seen partly as a traitor and partly as the lucky bastard who got out."
Great post!
fabulous insight! Oh so much truth in your words! I think there is an added layer of luxury, luck AND internal conflict in considering your new home even BETTER than your original home.
I could restack every sentence! Such incredible insights that are so similar to many I have heard.
Personally, When I complained I was told “we told you, come back life is better here” 🙄a very different experience leaving a country so many are trying to migrate to ( so I returned as well just to realise it’s not as great as people told me when I complained about living abroad haha)
Guess the grass is always greener on the other side when we have the freedom of choice