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Shiba28

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    Positive Emigrating To Australia True Life Stories

    in Aussie Chat

    Posted

    On 10/01/2019 at 08:26, milliem said:

    We have now been here six years last November when I arrived just myself (teacher) and my son (then 15) 

    To say the first couple of years were a little rocky would be an understatement.  I had a regional visa so could not live or work near my sister and family so I found myself a little isolated in a regional town near the Sunshine Coast.  We said despite how miserable we felt, we would give Australia 5 years, then go home if we still didn’t like it. 

    The private school I worked there in was mostly made up of farming kids so not many were heading to university. However, it was a nice friendly and safe environment for my son (Aspergers) to complete  his last two years of high school.  There was nothing to do there so I spent my spare time as a rural firefighter, playing bridge and doing as much professional development as I could fit in. I also saved like crazy as we had arrived in Australia with very little money.  I budgeted just 60 dollars a week for our food. Rent was cheap and the rest went in the bank. These were quite dark times. I didn’t see much of my sister, the whole point of coming to Australia and we didn’t make many friends locally.  As a single mum who worked there were not many avenues for meeting people and making friends.  Thankfully fellow firies were very friendly so I enjoyed getting out there.

     After two years there I had had enough of being stuck there and having gained 5 more visa points I decided to spend another 10k and applied for PR. I started frantically applying for metropolitan jobs.   I was a little over zealous and was quickly offered a role in a beautiful school on the Gold Coast.  Things were finally looking up.  The bad news was that my current visa would not let me work on the Gold Coast.  They held the job until December but still no visa. So they readvertised.   I was beginning to think I was stuck forever.  Then I did the crazy thing of just resigning anyway. I figured I now had some savings to keep us going.  I moved out of my house and put everything in storage. In early December I got a call from an agency asking if I was free for a semester contract in Brisbane. I said no and told them about the visa problem.

    They said let’s not tell them about that for now but go along and chat with them.  It turned out to be a top school and the interview went so well, they said they would wait until the week before term 1 for my visa.  At this point I didn’t even tell my family as they already thought I was crazy throwing a perfectly good job away.  I headed off to the states on holiday with my sister.  15th January I returned and no visa.  I found several voice messages from the school saying contact us urgently.  I couldn’t bear to turn another good job away just yet.  On the 19th I finally emailed them, 2 days before school start and said, no visa but I expect to have it in two days. The latter statement was a lie but hey.  They said okay.   That night I drowned and lamented in red wine about what might have been.  Next morning I woke up and there it was. The golden email!  I could not believe it.  The gamble had paid off and I now had a job at a top school. My family were in shock and so was I. That resulted in much more red wine. 

    A week later, I found myself working in a place alongside people who really were at the top of their profession and teaching highly dedicated and ambitious students. I learned a lot and enjoyed every minute. My son went to college and made a few friends. This was the turnaround for us. My next move, we built our own house on the Gold Coast. In the Uk all I could have bought was a 2 bed apartment in a crappy part of town.  This was a big stretch financially so I started a side business from home which added a good boost to my income. I also did lots of other jobs around the coast.  I commuted to Brisbane for a while for my main job but then I took a chance on another temporary contract in a great private school on the Gold Coast.  Two years later I still work there and am now a head of dept so my main income has also had a boost.

    so things are much better now.  We are just looking at building a pool in the next few months.  I have not relaxed quite yet, I still have the side business which my son helps out with but this is home for us now. As a young country Australia is very much a land of opportunity if you are prepared to work hard. It made a difference for us.  We also got a fresh start in a new place.  We joined a tennis club and a gym and occasionally get to the beach. We love the variety of the all parts of the Gold Coast and Brisbane is just up the road. 

    As soon as we got our new house we also adopted a rescue cat and she had a hard time before she came to us.  She is all good now and we love her dearly. 3 years later, she is still the cutest

    Millie 

    359A249C-9D12-46E1-9ACB-810441599BF3.jpeg

    wow! what a great story!

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