We leave our homeland in hope of a better live, a promise of a great future and persistence to make it abroad. Sometimes life throws us curveballs and doesn’t matter how much you would like to control your fate, we can only control how we react. Sacrifices. We all make them at crucial times of our lives. Some of us do it on a daily basis and the lucky ones can only read about it thanking god it isn’t them.
I always thought that leaving my country and moving to the Netherlands will make it easier for me to find a job. I saw my sister’s struggle to find a decent, well -paid job in Poland and I hoped I wouldn’t have to go through the same. Unfortunately, I picked the worst time to be a fresh graduate with no relevant work experience. I spent over 6 months desperately looking for job. I sent countless applications and for weeks I have been staring at my phone daring it to ring. ‘It’s not your fault, the job market is just very hard for starters’, I heard from everyone. Even though I knew they were right, putting myself out there after every rejection began to weight on me. I lost my confidence, my drive and mornings were particularly hard to get out of bed.
There comes a time when you have to stop beating yourself over your misfortune and start to act. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do”, I thought, and I broaden my search horizon. I have applied for a position of postman, re-stocker of the shelves and a warehouse employee. Apparently, if you have no diploma from the University of a Wonderful Postman or a certificate of the Excellence in Shelves Re-stocking, you will be let down. After the rejections from the jobs that I even thought were beneath me, I finally found something to support me financially. My job is not glamorous but it is the best way to get a foot in the door at a company.
My spirit is not broken and I believe that sooner or later something will finally come my way. I must believe in that, but for now, I sacrifice my pride and ambition and do what I have to do in order to get by. The gravity of sacrifices we make is always weighed down by our priorities and principles, the same factors that determine our path to success. The weight and length of your sacrifice shows how much you are driven and determined to reach your goals. To paraphrase Marion Black’s song, “Who knows what tomorrow will bring, maybe sunshine maybe rain. But as for now I wait and see, and maybe it will bring my dream job to me.”
If you were or are in the same situation, please share your advice, experience and wisdom with the readers. Perhaps your story could help to inspire and empower other people on their journey.