Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Would I have been happier there?

Sometimes I wonder what I gained from picking myself up and moving to another continent.

Sure, there's the argument that people around me have a better life as a result of me moving, my family can live a peaceful life here without the constant worry that they'll be robbed or killed, my brothers have better opportunities here to make the most out of their lives, but what really has changed for the better for me.

Before I moved here in 2000, I had finished university, finished my internship stint at Barcellos and was working on completing my ACCA. Within a few years I could've reached the top rung of the ladder career wise, bought a house, married and quite possibly become a mother... and all probably before the age of 25.

Instead I chose to come here, where your degree is recognized but it's not enough, where a designation is needed if you plan to reach the top of the ladder, where you're not given all the transfer credits you should receive because UK Accounting Standards are totally different from Canadian Accounting Standards - which is obviously a problem in Canada but not Guyana where most everything is still patterned after the British, where a third of your income goes towards taxes to help pay for services for which you don't even use, where a house and marriage doesn't happen until you're a few years shy of 30, where kids is out of the question for even more years because who can afford them really, and even when you think you can afford them, you can't, because inevitably they'll see the face of their daycare provider for more hours than they see yours... and that's not really affording them.

So yeah, sometimes I do wonder what I gained from leaving home in the first place, maybe it's the whole peace of mind/safety thing, at least here I don't usually spend alot of time worrying about a break and enter and possible loss of life of those that I care about, or maybe it's the fact that I did right by my brothers, Bunny's in his second year at York now and Stefan got 13 A's and 4 B's this term at school. At least some amount of good came out my move, right? What does it matter if I gained anything out of it or not.

7 Comments:

Blogger ghanima said...

Bad day, hon? Feel free to call up if you need to talk, or better yet, book me for a dessert-fest. For the record, I think the priorities in this country are messed up too.

9:42 AM

 
Blogger Michelle Hopp said...

Bad night actually, I slipped out of my usual focus-on-the-positive-forget-about-the-negative frame of mind for a moment there and my keyboard got the brunt of it. :)

It's not just that though, it's like my hormones are having a field day, laughing one minute, crying the next. Lovely I tell ya.

Buried myself in work today though so that's helping take my mind off things.

I certainly wouldn't mind a dessert-fest, would you be able to have anything on the menu though?

11:00 AM

 
Blogger ghanima said...

Tea. :)

Of course, now I know you're not devastated, 'cause it occurred to you to ask...

8:12 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let's just move to T&C. Do they need computer people there? ;)
*hugs*

8:15 AM

 
Blogger Michelle Hopp said...

No not devastated, just hormonal and weepy. Ugh.

T&C, eh? We could always ask my aunt. I wouldn't count on them needing comptuer folks though. :)

11:07 AM

 
Blogger ghanima said...

So Kev would have an illustrious career as a panhandler ahead of him? ;)

3:21 PM

 
Blogger Michelle Hopp said...

I'll bet they don't often see the likes of him panhandling in that part of the world. He can be a novelty, wonder if I can be his pimp... ;)

2:19 PM

 

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