I wanted to become fluent in English
Since I was a child, my main goal was to become fluent in English. As a teenager, I wanted to to live in a foreign country and the USA were the country of my early dreams. I was thinking of going there for a year while studying, but it never happened. I was a very hard-working student and I was afraid not to be enough successful if I was living abroad for an entire year – not to mention that my mom was not very excited about this idea; so I stayed in France and I focused on getting my diploma. In 2011, I graduated from my MBA. I was very clear about what was next: hasta la vista mi amores, I’m off to Uncle Sam’s paradise! That was in theory. Reality showed me very quickly that getting a work visa for the US was very challenging; I had no time and no desire to go through all the paperwork – let’s be real, English speaking countries are everywhere! This is when someone talked to me for the very first time about the Working Holiday Visa program, available in many countries such as Canada. For those who are not familiar with this term, a Working Holiday Visa (commonly called WHV), is a temporary work permit that allows people to work in a country up to one or two years (depending on the country). To qualify, you must be between 18-30 (or 35 for some countries), have a valid passport and have some money on your bank account. I had traveled in Canada when I was 10 and I had (blurry but) very good memories! Furthermore, Canada is quite close from the US, right? This is when I decided to leave France to go to Canada, to Vancouver (British Columbia) for a year. I would like to mention that when I look back today, I am glad that I didn’t go to the US. Canada is an amazing country and I don’t regret for one second my choice at the time. I still enjoy going to the US, but strictly as a traveller… I am happy to be able to call Canada home today.From travelling to emigrate
I wasn’t in Canada yet that I knew I won’t go back to France. The desire I had had to go live abroad was so intense for so long, that I couldn’t imagine going back to a “regular” life after only one year. As soon as I got to Vancouver, I started to learn about the different ways to stay in the country as long as possible. For over a year, I got a job after another and I did everything I had to do to get a new work permit. It was a success and I was allowed to stay in Canada for another 18 months. However, even when you are legally allowed to work in a country, there a lots of restrictions and conditions that you must comply with in order to stay as long as possible. I will save you the details; eventually I found a company that offered me a qualified job in my field of studies; I started a position as a marketing assistant in an English for Second Language (ESL) school, where I will soon get promoted to brand manager.When 2016 decided to shake it all up
In January 2016, over three years and a half in the country and two years in the same company, I finally got my permanent residency. Yay! That was a big achievement that I was extremely proud of. What came next was not that exciting. Only a few weeks after this great news, I went through a breakup and I had to afford an apartment by myself in downtown Vancouver. Ouch! That was a though time, especially because I had just moved in this place two months earlier. Anyway, I didn’t want to give up this place so I decided to stay there a little longer. It would have been all good if the story ended there, but it didn’t. Only four months after the breakup, I got laid off for “financial” reasons. This announcement was very tough for me and I felt like everything I had built for four years was falling to pieces; it was a very weird feeling. Unfortunately, this is also part of living abroad as work regulations are very different from a country to another. That day, I knew a chapter of my life was closing. I went through different stages after that: misunderstanding, anger, questioning, with always the same question in my head: what’s next? I knew right away that I didn’t want to look for another job in this city, I needed to start all over somewhere else, I needed a new life adventure.When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.” ― Stephenie Meyer
A road trip that changed my life
In life I don’t believe in fate, however I believe in signs that life sends your way and that you need to decode; I believe that in every situation, even the most complicated, there is a solution for those who want to find it. When it comes to my personal experience, I randomly got in touch with two girls who were travelling around Canada, at the exact same moment when I lost my job. Their plan was to rent a RV and go on a ten-days road trip around British Columbia. That was exactly what I needed at that time! I needed to escape, I needed to see something different, I needed to be surrounded by new people and I needed some fresh air from the Canadian mountains! I won’t go into the details of how I ended up going with them, but I did and we started this road trip together. I didn’t know it yet, but this road trip was about to change my life. Since that trip, I have fallen in love with adventures and life on the road. I haven’t stopped travelling ever since! After this road trip, I did another one in the Western US, then another one (solo this time) through Canada, then I went backpacking in seven countries in South America, and today I am in Australia where I am getting ready to hit the road again. Sometimes, you have to see life in a different way and accept that every little thing in life happens for a reason. When I look back, I believe that I was not completely happy in my job anymore, I needed something different and even though it was very hard at the time, it allowed me to get over it and jump into new adventures. They say that travelling is a therapy, I believe it was for me back then. However, today I know that the travel bug got me and I want travels to be a complete part of my life. I fell in love with the world, with the wonders it has to offer, but also with people I have met during my journey. Today, I want to keep meeting people from all over the world, from all ages and all backgrounds, to get inspiration from them and try to become a better person on this planet.If you are a woman and you wish to travel but you are not sure what to start with, go to this section and tell me how I can help you.
