To introduce myself to the precious community of Steemit, I would like to talk about a part of my life that defines me and the way I am today. A time that I hit the rock bottom and thought I would never have risen up again.

The year 2016 was full of hassle due to the intense application process and the proficiency tests that I had to take while still trying to maintain my GPA that was just below the threshold determined by most graduate schools. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t send e-mails to potential supervisors and administrative staff to enquire about the opportunities. My passion was to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical science, especially in cancer treatment. I knew that if I stayed in Turkey, I wouldn’t really be able to achieve success, because the pharmaceutical research in Turkey is not all that extensive. 

Skipping to the false happy ending; I got a PhD admission from a reasonably reputable university in Chicago, with a full scholarship. Then, I tried to arrange accommodation, flight tickets and the visa. Little did I know that the US visa was actually going to be the trigger of a series of unfortunate and fortunate events. 

The visa interview was very straight-forward, the officer only asked me simple questions about what I studied in Turkey and what I was going to study in the States, after which he gave me the approval slip. It was done; my dream was so close to coming true! I was above the clouds. Until I got my passport back… Instead of a stamped 4 years long student visa, I found a folded yellow paper entitled “administrative processing”. It took me half an hour of careful reading to absorb what was happening. For some unexplained reason, my application had to undergo an additional background check and all I was able to do was to wait. It was the same day of the military coup of July 15 in Turkey, which made this day to the top of the list for the worst days of my life. 

Over the six months that followed, the requests from my supervisor in Chicago, the registrar and the enquiries of a few immigration attorneys were left unanswered. Basically, a dream that I worked so hard to achieve was taken away from me and I had to accept it. Day by day, I was becoming more hopeless. In the meantime I lost someone who was a significant person to me, which pulled me further down. That was when I decided to make a fresh start. For that to happen, I had to cut off the loose ties that kept me shackled. I sent an e-mail to the US Embassy requesting to withdraw my application. Their response to this was the quickest I ever got from them, and the only positive one. Then, I cancelled my PhD admission. 

The next day, I listed all the countries that I would like to study in, including many countries in Europe, Asia, Canada and even South America. The same e-mail shower and application process took place. Then one day it clicked me! When I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I saw a recent post from a travel blogger I used to follow. It was an incredible view of the city Cape Town. I was always curious about this city and the country of South Africa, because whoever went there came back saying they wanted to move there permanently. What was it that attracted so many people? From the photos, it certainly looked more like Europe and America than Africa. The more research I did, the more complex it became. The black and the white, the luxury and the poverty, the ocean and the mountains, how could everything be so opposite and yet manage to co-exist in one place! To find out, I had to spend a part of my life there! 

When I checked the university rankings, I found out about the University of Cape Town, which had a reasonably high ranking in the top 150 of Times Higher Education list. Further research led me to discover that a very well-known Turkish physician, Canan Karatay, was part of the crew who performed the first heart transplant in the world at Groote Schuur Hospital of the University of Cape Town. What a coincidence; one of my best friends had her e-mail address and she helped me get in touch with her. Upon Prof Karatay’s friendly and encouraging response to my e-mail, I made up my mind and applied immediately.  

Long story short, I am now in the beginning of my second year of master’s in Cape Town. It has been 13 long months since I have moved to Cape Town. These 13 months were full of ups and downs, full of self-discoveries and realizations along a journey towards my inner-self. I have studied a lot, traveled a lot, hiked a lot, met a lot of people, listened to a whole spectrum of life stories, went on a lot of dates, tried a lot of different hobbies, cried a little (too much), felt desperate, felt hopeful, ate a lot of fish and chips, drank the best wines and the milkshakes I’ve ever had. I have lived and grown. If I hadn’t withdrawn my US visa application that day, maybe none of these would have happened. Do I like it? Yes, but sometimes no. Anyway, you can decide for yourselves, because I will be sharing a lot of stories and information regarding Cape Town and South Africa. Of course, once a while, I will also be sharing informative stuff about the 19 other countries that I have visited so far.

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