Spaniard here grateful to this country and its people

skarman11

On a day like today, November 20, 2021, I took a flight from Madrid to Dublin with all my belongings alongside my mother bidding me farewell at Terminal 4 of Barajas Airport. After these two years and on the brink of turning 30 soon, I reflect on this and many other decisions I have made in the last 10-12 years.

Back in 2012, during my first semester at university in Telecommunications Engineering, I spent it drunk and barely studying, and I almost drop it after failing five out of six subjects. Two conversations with two different friends about it made me change my mind and give myself another chance for the next semester, where I passed everything and moved forward.

There are other decisions, like leaving people or jobs behind, which were tough but I don't consider them either good or bad; they were simply made in those circumstances, and each person went their own way in the best possible manner.

Taking the step to move abroad gave me the opportunity to take a giant leap in my life and career at all levels. I've consistently mproved my English, I've had better jobs, and have made good contacts and friends along the way wherever I went. On the flip side, every time I come back home and see my parents getting older and my nephew-cousins growing up, I feel like I've missed events/ocassions in my family.

The life of an "expatriate" is lonelier than staying at home, but it makes you grow as a person. It takes you through reflexive situations and makes you more aware that life is a journey where we ourselves are at the helm and beneficiaries and victims of our own decisions, for better or worse, whether we like it or not.