A FOREIGN STUDENT WITH A DIFICULT LIFE
Photography by: @miguelarocha (Dublin, Ireland)
Sony Xperia Z1
In my case, I remember a 15 years old myself, sitting in a classroom during the physics class few years ago, while watching the mountains in front of the high school I used to go to, and without paying any attention to the class I thought about all those things I wanted to do for life. Most of the day I was thinking of traveling the world and do things that make more sense than just graduating, getting married and having a big house. As a restless person I always felt between four walls which I wanted to climb until I saw what was on the other side.
When I started college, I continued with these dreams that kept me awake. I studied the subjects of my career with a lot of passion for writing, the main reason for attending classes of journalism.
The university environment taught me to relate, to lose my fear, to learn from mistakes and not to commit them again. Wonderful time that made me grow more as a person and during which I had the opportunity to meet many people including my current partner. About five years ago during a monotonous daily university life I did not imagine what I am living now.
If anyone had asked me five years ago where I thought I was going to be right now, I would have said something totally remote from the current reality. My partner, at that time gave me the opportunity to joy him on a trip that at first, I thought it just would help him.
During the months leading up to the trip to ireland, my friends said goodbye in a definitive way because they felt it would be the last time we would see each other in a long time, when I was actually leaving the country for a year to receive an intensive English course. After leaving my studies and my family I decided to embark on this trip with twenty one years old, three suitcases full of things and wanting to get ahead thinking that I would return to my country the following year. When I arrived at my destination I was not surprised or impressed, I just felt calm. I felt that I was in a completely new but very familiar place, where each person received me as any citizen, and principally in the case of my host family.
Photography by: @miguelarocha (Greystones, Ireland)
Nikon D3300
I arrived at an Irish family’s house, people who rented their rooms to students for a limited time with breakfast and dinner included. We decided to pay for the first month while we got somewhere else more accessible. As two inexperienced boys we decided to stay as we felt very comfortable in that place, whose owners allowed us to stay for 6 months at a lower cost but still expensive.
This risky situation could have left us in the streets but with much positivism we decided to find part time jobs that would give us the chance to finish our studies and to stabilize us economically. At this point, we were already on our own and depending clearly on our work to continue our day to day, which in fact, only gave us more strength to move forward.
Jobs in kitchens, butcher shops and cleaning, helped me to continue with my purpose of finishing my studies to improve the language I had decided to study. Course that lasted for three years, during which I learned to manage the language quite fluently.
During this time, I lived like every happy university student with the results obtained in each exam. Where I left the metro for a bicycle, I learned to face the day to day with maturity, With a pretty healthy but crazy nightlife, With many friendships that I will keep for a long time and with one or another trip out of Ireland that I will carry in my heart for the rest of my life. But above all with a lot of effort.
After finishing my studies, I decided to embark on my next trip. A plane to the other side of the world was the protagonist of all these memories of experiences and satisfactions, which I tell after a few years and now make me wonder, where will I be in five years? I did not now.
Photography by: @miguelarocha (Dublin, Ireland)
Nikon D3300
After three years as an English student in Ireland, I had to overcome diferent situations. Of course the main thing to achieve was to finish studies. But as many cases, working to pay expenses while studying at the same time is not always easy. I had the right to have a part time job in places which opening hours were during school time. This is a serious problem when trying to get money to finish what you are in that country for. Because if you do not get money, you can not continue, and if you do not attend class, in case you decide to work more, visas are not going to be renued for studies as student visas are renued by students with up to 85 percent of school attendance.
My last year was quite sad. At that point I had to work more and skip school for a couple of days so I could get money to live thinking that this was the only one option I had. But the truth is that I could have been more prepare at the begining and to be more selective when talking about work. I finished that last year with only 60 percent of attendance. What did this mean? I had to say good bye. The good thing is that I had a plan already.
In this cases, preparation might be everything guys.