“My working holiday experience in US is the greatest adventure of my life so far.
There was this random night, I came across this ‘working holiday’ thing on the Internet and I was like ‘oh US?’, a country that has never be on my list and I just signed up for it because I want to experience the so called ‘US culture’.
One of the US cultures I’ve experienced is that they are a proud nation to the extend that they think they are the best.
I remember I went to US during Christmas, so my boss wanted me to help with the Christmas tree decoration and she asked me ‘do you celebrate Christmas in Malaysia? Have you ever seen evergreen?’
I know she wasn’t being mean but at the beginning, I felt like ‘oh she is looking down at us, she thinks that Malaysia is a very kampong place, very rural’.
I was working as a housekeeper in a ski resort in Peru, Vermont and it was an unforgettable experience for me. It was very tough at the beginning because I overestimated myself, the physical work was beyond my limit – I’m small in size and not that strong.
Also, during winter, the temperature reached -20°C, and I was under the weather for almost 2 months.
It was very tiring for me. My parents were forcing me to quit and come back to Malaysia.
I felt like giving up but I didn’t want to, I had a feeling that I will look down at myself if I gave up. Now, I feel like it is an achievement, I learned a lot of things, not only about US but about myself.
I remember there was this old man, he was my co-worker as a mechanic in the resort. He told me one should always have a ‘student’ mentality: to always be willing to learn, regardless of what positions you hold, your age, your wealth – and that’s been the wisest thing that I have heard along the journey.
Despite I can talk so much about travelling, I do feel lost and depress sometimes. It’s because I don’t have a job now, I don’t have an income and I still living on allowance.
I tried very hard to get a job in UK after I finished my degree in Liverpool because I really love the city so much.
It’s about the lifestyle and the people I met, all the experiences made me grow so much and so quick. In the end, I didn’t get any.
I believe that good things take time and things happened for a reason. These simple quotes and beliefs hold me every time I’m on the edge of breaking down”.
Photostory by Samantha Siow
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa
Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8
(This post was first published on October 27th 2018)
