How low can you go...
hmmm this is an interesting post
I wanted to tell you about some of the embarrassing things that I have done over the course of my life, but then i realised i would probably be able to write a series of novels on that subject... with a 'to be continued' at the end of each one... because the embarrassing things don't seem to stop happening.
They always make for good stories during parties, so as soon as the initial phase of red cheeks and clumsily leaving the scene of the verbal or physical accident, I do enjoy to look back at some of the ridiculous things i have done and retell them to others with great enthusiasm.
Ok I need to start this article with a real starting point...
So I was talking to someone recently about... someone... who was in a new country, and who was very discouraged because they couldn't find a job, they couldn't fit in with the local people and they were quite alienated and feeling depressed. However this person had been offered some jobs in kitchens or lower kind of positions and had turned them down because they didn't want to do such a lowly job. Then they complained that there was no opportunity.
I really believe that opportunity wears many different clothes when it comes to knock on your door and whether you recognise your much wanted visitor is only dependant on how much you want to see it.
Before we started Culture Exchange, i had done so many humiliating, strenuous, low-paid, crazy and interesting jobs. Did I see my future dressed up as a french man on the streets of Birmingham selling magazines? (this needs further explaining) Did I really want to take care of that baby for 100 din an hour? Did I want to spend my life cycling around Novi Sad to every far flung corner to teach my private English lessons?
Well of course not...
The point was not what I was doing, but where I wanted to go with what I was doing that was important to me. I had to believe that all those little seemingly meaningless tasks and jobs that I was scraping the pennies for, was going to take me to a place where I wanted to go.
What would you seriously do to achieve your dream? How low would you go to follow your ambitions? How crazy and desperate would you be to make it?
I think that I have absolutely no dignity when it comes to getting what I want. When I see the goal in front on me, I fix my gaze on it, i struggle in every kind of way I might need to, to get there.
So what did I do when I came to Serbia as a 21 year old with very little skills, qualifications, money, possessions or friends?
Well soon after I arrived, I intended to be financially independent. I wanted to earn my money in Serbia and live in Serbia.
I had no idea what to do or how to get a job here. I started by scouring the local papers and also requesting jobs from any of my friends or people i met.
I found ads in the local newspapers and considered all of them, from cleaning houses and business spaces at 4 am in the morning to working on a cruise ship. It was a challenge for me to call the business to ask them to hire me, because i spoke such bad Serbian, and they spoke little English. There were many misunderstandings and long phone calls with google translate at my side.
Seeing as I wanted to get bar experience as we had the grand plans in the works to open CE, I also looked for work in a bar. I remember seeing the ad for a waitress at a Kafana and eagerly headed there to talk to the manager. He was very confused and asked me how i could serve the customers without speaking Serbian properly... i never got the call back.
In the end I worked several jobs at the same time. I placed an ad as an English teacher and started to get students, I charged a really low price and would cycle to their homes, 300 din an hour (about 2 euros) would get you an hour of me struggling to translate and teach English. I also worked as a dance teacher for some schools, I worked as a kindergarten teacher and took care of babies, I worked in 3 English schools some hours each week. I took every job opportunity I could, regardless of the pay. Why did I do this? because i knew my goal... to be financially independent and work as hard as I could in this new country. Every new task was a joy to me, and I learnt a lot from this struggling, though I was very tired. I made some great friends in this time and many of the people i taught and the businesses I worked for later helped with CE.
I remember seeing an advert for a cruise ship job and an address, i headed to the place only to find a huge apartment block with many different buzzers to get into the building, I had forgotten the number of the apartment, and I didn't have enough money to put credit on my phone to call them. I rang every buzzer, someone answered, I stumbled through my Serbian to try and explain what I was looking for, someone answered and led me to believe it was on the 11th floor. Up I went, waiting for me was a very old man covered in tattoos and wearing his underware, i wasn't alarmed yet (not the brightest girl in the school). I went in, his apartment door closed and locked, there were several unnerving facts about this scenario, one was that it was obviously not a office for a cruise ship (a little late to realise) the second was that his house was covered in children's teddy bears.... I had no credit on my phone, but needed to bluff. I pretended to call my boyfriend and said it was an emergency and i must leave, I left rather in a hurry without time for tea or coffee and sat on the outside steps very discouraged and shaking with fear. I eventually found the office, but did not get that job.
After we started CE, I had to stop doing my other jobs, as there wasn't enough time, and by then i was working on what I really wanted to do and was able to support myself with something I was really passionate about.
When you feel that you are nothing and no one, you have nothing to lose, so you try everything. This is a freeing and beautiful mentality that opens you up to people and experience like a dog racing out of the cage in hunt of its first meal of the day. If you are really hungry, you will find food. If you want it... go get it, in whatever way you need to.
I honestly think that If I had to clean the streets wearing a green and orange jump suit in order to get the money i needed to open CE or to fulfil any of my dreams, I would do it (I also like the idea of that jumpsuit). I would do anything that I need to do to get to where I want to go, and this is the point I wanted to make with this article.
Guys, don't hold back, there is really no point. The place where you start the race from is so different from the finish, and you cannot waste time sitting back and wondering if something is good enough for you, or if you are good enough for something.
Every day you are alive is one less day that you are alive.. do you know what I mean... it is going to end someday for each one of us, don't you want to know that you really gave every task your all, that you fought in every battle that you could find, regardless of its size or beauty. Try or die... and i don't mean to go to meaningless jobs for the rest of your life, just think about what you want and take any little steps, but take them thinking about your goal. You can't look at a big oak tree and be like.. yeah I want to be like that tree, but i don't want to be a seed. Its a painful, embarrassing, tiring and difficult procedure to get through the many steps that growth is, you also have to know when to say NO to things that are not going to go in the right direction, but I really believe that we mainly regret the things that we didn't do, not the things that we did. So go for it:)
hmmm this is an interesting post
I wanted to tell you about some of the embarrassing things that I have done over the course of my life, but then i realised i would probably be able to write a series of novels on that subject... with a 'to be continued' at the end of each one... because the embarrassing things don't seem to stop happening.
They always make for good stories during parties, so as soon as the initial phase of red cheeks and clumsily leaving the scene of the verbal or physical accident, I do enjoy to look back at some of the ridiculous things i have done and retell them to others with great enthusiasm.
Ok I need to start this article with a real starting point...
So I was talking to someone recently about... someone... who was in a new country, and who was very discouraged because they couldn't find a job, they couldn't fit in with the local people and they were quite alienated and feeling depressed. However this person had been offered some jobs in kitchens or lower kind of positions and had turned them down because they didn't want to do such a lowly job. Then they complained that there was no opportunity.
I really believe that opportunity wears many different clothes when it comes to knock on your door and whether you recognise your much wanted visitor is only dependant on how much you want to see it.
Before we started Culture Exchange, i had done so many humiliating, strenuous, low-paid, crazy and interesting jobs. Did I see my future dressed up as a french man on the streets of Birmingham selling magazines? (this needs further explaining) Did I really want to take care of that baby for 100 din an hour? Did I want to spend my life cycling around Novi Sad to every far flung corner to teach my private English lessons?
Well of course not...
The point was not what I was doing, but where I wanted to go with what I was doing that was important to me. I had to believe that all those little seemingly meaningless tasks and jobs that I was scraping the pennies for, was going to take me to a place where I wanted to go.
What would you seriously do to achieve your dream? How low would you go to follow your ambitions? How crazy and desperate would you be to make it?
I think that I have absolutely no dignity when it comes to getting what I want. When I see the goal in front on me, I fix my gaze on it, i struggle in every kind of way I might need to, to get there.
So what did I do when I came to Serbia as a 21 year old with very little skills, qualifications, money, possessions or friends?
Well soon after I arrived, I intended to be financially independent. I wanted to earn my money in Serbia and live in Serbia.
I had no idea what to do or how to get a job here. I started by scouring the local papers and also requesting jobs from any of my friends or people i met.
I found ads in the local newspapers and considered all of them, from cleaning houses and business spaces at 4 am in the morning to working on a cruise ship. It was a challenge for me to call the business to ask them to hire me, because i spoke such bad Serbian, and they spoke little English. There were many misunderstandings and long phone calls with google translate at my side.
Seeing as I wanted to get bar experience as we had the grand plans in the works to open CE, I also looked for work in a bar. I remember seeing the ad for a waitress at a Kafana and eagerly headed there to talk to the manager. He was very confused and asked me how i could serve the customers without speaking Serbian properly... i never got the call back.
In the end I worked several jobs at the same time. I placed an ad as an English teacher and started to get students, I charged a really low price and would cycle to their homes, 300 din an hour (about 2 euros) would get you an hour of me struggling to translate and teach English. I also worked as a dance teacher for some schools, I worked as a kindergarten teacher and took care of babies, I worked in 3 English schools some hours each week. I took every job opportunity I could, regardless of the pay. Why did I do this? because i knew my goal... to be financially independent and work as hard as I could in this new country. Every new task was a joy to me, and I learnt a lot from this struggling, though I was very tired. I made some great friends in this time and many of the people i taught and the businesses I worked for later helped with CE.
I remember seeing an advert for a cruise ship job and an address, i headed to the place only to find a huge apartment block with many different buzzers to get into the building, I had forgotten the number of the apartment, and I didn't have enough money to put credit on my phone to call them. I rang every buzzer, someone answered, I stumbled through my Serbian to try and explain what I was looking for, someone answered and led me to believe it was on the 11th floor. Up I went, waiting for me was a very old man covered in tattoos and wearing his underware, i wasn't alarmed yet (not the brightest girl in the school). I went in, his apartment door closed and locked, there were several unnerving facts about this scenario, one was that it was obviously not a office for a cruise ship (a little late to realise) the second was that his house was covered in children's teddy bears.... I had no credit on my phone, but needed to bluff. I pretended to call my boyfriend and said it was an emergency and i must leave, I left rather in a hurry without time for tea or coffee and sat on the outside steps very discouraged and shaking with fear. I eventually found the office, but did not get that job.
After we started CE, I had to stop doing my other jobs, as there wasn't enough time, and by then i was working on what I really wanted to do and was able to support myself with something I was really passionate about.
When you feel that you are nothing and no one, you have nothing to lose, so you try everything. This is a freeing and beautiful mentality that opens you up to people and experience like a dog racing out of the cage in hunt of its first meal of the day. If you are really hungry, you will find food. If you want it... go get it, in whatever way you need to.
I honestly think that If I had to clean the streets wearing a green and orange jump suit in order to get the money i needed to open CE or to fulfil any of my dreams, I would do it (I also like the idea of that jumpsuit). I would do anything that I need to do to get to where I want to go, and this is the point I wanted to make with this article.
Guys, don't hold back, there is really no point. The place where you start the race from is so different from the finish, and you cannot waste time sitting back and wondering if something is good enough for you, or if you are good enough for something.
Every day you are alive is one less day that you are alive.. do you know what I mean... it is going to end someday for each one of us, don't you want to know that you really gave every task your all, that you fought in every battle that you could find, regardless of its size or beauty. Try or die... and i don't mean to go to meaningless jobs for the rest of your life, just think about what you want and take any little steps, but take them thinking about your goal. You can't look at a big oak tree and be like.. yeah I want to be like that tree, but i don't want to be a seed. Its a painful, embarrassing, tiring and difficult procedure to get through the many steps that growth is, you also have to know when to say NO to things that are not going to go in the right direction, but I really believe that we mainly regret the things that we didn't do, not the things that we did. So go for it:)
Too bad it wasn't a Beckham style man in his undies... smirk giggle! I have had LOTS of Embarassing moments... Like the time I went to a Halloween party for the local small town high school English class... joined the apple bobbing competition and ended up making it a one woman show wet Tshirt contest! so, that happened. my post nursing 40+ year old self! Ya just gotta laugh, shrug it off and move on! Good on you! You are doing great! Cheers from the American in the south of Srbija
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