My
name is Spencer; I am a first generation immigrant from Asia. From my personal
experience over the past few years, I find it is really hard to adapt myself to
a new country and obtaining a permanent visa/citizenship is not an easy task. It
is not like taking candy from a baby, in fact, I have overcome difficulties since
the first day I arrived Australia.
I
was diagnosed with depression a few months after I quit my first office job in
Australia. At that time, I felt so stressed because so many pressures had been
exerted on me at the same time.
First,
while I was working, I had to spend nearly three hours on traveling between
home and work every working day, indeed. I need to buy a car. But I have to get
Australian driver’s license after grant of permanent visa. Believe or not, I
failed the road test three times even after I practiced more than 50 hours with
a professional instructor. I was so frustrated and I couldn’t believe I failed
again and again.
Second,
I was planning to get my accountant certificate, so I booked an exam, paid fees
online and then study materials would be sent to me. However, they sent a
parcel to the wrong place and did not arrange redelivery until one month later.
This certainly distorted my entire plan and made me worried a lot. What was
worse, the process of being a certified accountant in Australia is quite
different from my home country. The job I was doing does not satisfy the
requirement in Australia, so I questioned my ability and totally confused about
my future.
Perhaps
family pressure was the last straw for me. In my culture, a man is supposed to
be independent at the age of thirty, and it usually implies that I should
possess a good and stable job, a vehicle and a house. My parents urged me to
buy a house in Australia and they planned to sell their own house in order to
help me pay for the deposit. Parental love is great, but it made me feel
guilty.
All
these things happened in three months and finally I exploded and quit my job. After
being unemployed for a few months, I became depressed and attempted suicide.
When I came back to life, I changed my mind. There are so many people living in
poverty, illiteracy and war zones, and they still struggling to live no matter
what happened to them. Maybe I was chosen to go through these difficulties, so
all I need to do is to find the best way to cope with problems, build up my resistance to stress and carry on.