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17 Countries In A year And Job
Submitted by: Rendy
IndonesiaLife enthusiast, dreamer and creative thinker from Indonesia. Feel free to visit Travelagys.com for my journey around the world
A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. In February 2014 I got a dream job working in one of the biggest entertainment company in the USA. I was really lucky as it wasn’t easy to get a job overseas in America, but all I can tell you it all started from a dream. I remember I wrote “Disney, New York, Entertainment” on a piece of paper and stuck it on my wall, never thought it would bring me to a wonderful year working in the happiest place on earth. It was a year full of colors, dreams came true, so much happiness and possibilities that truly opened my eyes that if you want something big in your life, you definitely can make it happen. We’ve heard the sayings when there’s a will, there’s a way. And if you can dream it, you can become it. I’ve always wanted to travel, see things on a big scale, be a part of exciting projects, make dreams come true and inspire people.
So in the beginning on 2015, I decided to step out of my comfort zones again. I wanted to know what would happen if I stop following the crowd and created my own path. I wanted to reinvent myself and see how far I could go. So I decided to travel the West Coast USA for a month from Seattle all the way down to San Diego. I had saved up money for a year so I was confident to travel. On my last week in San Francisco I decided to apply the Schengen visa to travel around Europe with my best friend. I remember about few months before I traveled, I saw a map and told myself I’d visit Europe. I even took a picture of the map and shared it on my social media. Of course I had no idea it would happen sooner than I thought.
On my last day in America after traveling the West Coast for a month, I picked up my passport and found out my Schengen visa was granted for 3 months. I booked my flight ticket to Munich on the same day and felt so happy, excited and nervous to actually start a new chapter in Europe. I had the best times in the States, worked at Disney World, went to see Cirque Du Soleil One in Las Vegas, a road trip to Grand Canyon, Christmas in New York City and Chicago and so much more. I still pinch myself today for all the good and bad things that happened in my life in the past, for every little thing made me stronger and who I am today. I was ready for more.
Unfortunately it wasn’t all about good times, we also went through a lot of problems in Europe like finding a job, financial issues, etc. We went to Santorini because my friend got a job there, but we found out the job and neighborhood didn’t meet our expectation. We felt negativity and knew it wasn’t the right place, so after staying for 5 days we decided to leave Santorini and moved to Mallorca, Spain to find another job. We were lucky we got jobs straight away and the company would even provide us an apartment. After a week working we felt the colleagues we worked with were not cooperative enough. We weren’t happy and simply wanted to leave. Even during the hard times, my best friend and I supported each other, we reminded each other it did not matter what the condition were, we were still lucky to be able to travel the world, do the things we love, live next to the beach, count our blessings and hope for things to get better soon.
One day after coming back from a weekend trip to Barcelona, we found out the company relocated us to another branch in a neighboring town in Mallorca. No apartment, we had to stay in the hostel for 2 weeks while looking for apartment. It was really tough with the financial condition, but somehow we believed things would be OK. God helped us moving to a new city, with much better people to work with. Our new colleagues were kind, friendly and they simply made our stay in Spain much better. It was the best 3 months in my life, I learned to enjoy the present and live the uncertainty. Even though things seemed blurry and we had no idea what was going to happen next, we just had to trust the universe. Sometimes we felt stuck and stressed about money but we just had to pause, look around and realize how grateful we were to meet our new colleagues in Spain, that we visited France, Italy, Santorini,and Germany and that some people didn’t have chances to do that. I found myself grow a lot, I became a lot stronger and confident. I spent many hours writing and sent my articles to magazines and newspapers.
In the beginning of the year I had this picture on my mind where my articles were published in magazines, I could actually see and touch my travel pictures and that really motivated me to start writing again. I received a lot of rejections in the beginning but as I kept trying, in just 4 months my articles made it to a few travel websites, 4 magazines and 2 newspapers. Trust me it wasn’t easy, I wasn’t an over night success. I spent hours and hours until I finally got to see my articles in magazines and the hard work paid off. I really hoped my travel articles would inspire people, just like how the world continuously inspires me. I was so brave to leave my comfort zone, traveling to Europe with a small budget with no idea how I would make it, but for sure, gratitude and positive attitudes helped me. I am thankful for my bravery to do the hard things, the tough times that taught me lessons, challenges, the courage to continue, perfect health, life surprises, the beauty of life and new beginnings, imagination and creativity, and people who love me the way I am.
In July 2015 I left Europe to continue my journey to Asia. I did my first South East Asia trip in 2012 and promised myself to return to continue exploring. I started in Malaysia then Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia for about 4 months. As I explored South East Asia, I couldn’t help wanting something bigger and better for myself. In this world where some people are lucky to do the things they love, I wanted to do my dream job too. I want to continue working in entertainment or a creative industry and be a part of exciting projects with inspiring people from different backgrounds. I wanted to inspire people through story, photography, music and art and travel more. To move to a new country again where I would have to restart alone and get more opportunities. Obviously I didn’t know where to start and how to find that dream job, but it’s not important. What truly mattered was my commitment to make progress. I made sure each day I did something to chase my dreams. From writing to photography, from contacting people in entertainment companies to applying to new jobs. I had some tough times where I struggled a lot. Sometimes I felt stuck and didn’t make any progress, just running in the same circle and wasn’t sure if I could hold on any longer. Some mornings I woke up thinking this is the end, maybe I should give up, maybe I should just live a normal life and follow the crowd, but then I felt like God helped me. God gave me strong feet to keep walking and wings to fly from one place to another if I feel stuck. The point is I was never really stuck nor failed. I made progress and always keep putting my feet in front of each other. I pictured myself every day getting out of the situation and heading to a new place where the dream job is mine and working on a special project, big scale, with inspiring people in a new country that has a big entertainment scene.
One day when I was in Vietnam I found a job in my dream company. They were about to expand the business in Asia and needed someone to join them doing the editorial. I applied, didn’t hear back for a while but it was just the beginning when things start to fall into place. Of course I still had to struggle some more, like dealing with failures, money and rejections but I never stopped counting my blessings.
About 2 months ago I finally heard from my dream company. I did a few interviews until I got the job! My friends were shocked to know how I got it when there were so many better people out there. There was a little delay a few weeks ago as I found out my work permit was unsuccessful but my company is helping me to reapply. While waiting, I started working on my own, did research, helped my colleagues with anything I can do for them, prepared myself for a whole new life.
I decided to share this to help those who are fighting to make their dreams come true. We’re all in this together. There were times where I thought I couldn’t get up and had to give up, but then I managed to make a little progress and I wasn’t in the same place. The moment when I almost touched and tasted my dream I had to hold on a little longer but it did not make me lose my faith. Whatever your dreams, don’t give up, you and I are almost there.