I have chosen to leave my homeland behind and start a new life in another country, two continents away from mine... I am a student; therefore, on paper at least, I'm not considered an immigrant. Does it make a difference though? I am facing the same challenges, if not more, as immigrants everyday. I am adopting to new rules everyday, just like others.
Based on my experience in the past two years, I've found that, in a very broad sense, immigrants can be divided into two groups: one group that is open to the options and opportunities that their new life offers them and one group that still hang on to their past and the life they , supposedly, left behind.
I used the word "chosen" in the first sentence for a reason... no one MADE me come here and study, I HAD THE OPTION. I made a compromise, all the good memories and familiar things in return for something better - in my opinion. If I try to hang on to every little thing that is a representative of the old days, how can I cease the new opportunities? I would end up grieving for things that, most probably, wouldn't make me happy, even if I had them.
I came to a new country that had an-already-working-system and I started enjoying it right away. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is the ultimate utopia. All I'm saying is that this system would work perfectly without me... it is true that I am adding value to the existing system, but someone else could do the same if I had chosen not to come here. The price I pay - being lonely, homesick, and known as an "immigrant" for many many years to come - is reasonable for what I get in return. I could have stayed where I was and could have tried to make it a better place to live and work in. I preferred to start in a system that was already set up by others for me. I think it's rather absurd to expect the system/society to let me act according to ALL of my old values and habits. Don't you think that, perhaps, those values/habits were somewhat responsible for the way my country has turned out to be today?
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