Why Australia doesn’t owe you $#!+
By: Ola Tawose
Tags: Life Lessons, Design, Travel, Job Hunting, Immigration

Moving to a new country is never easy. It’s a process filled with thousands of contrasting emotions.

From fear, hope, sadness, joy, curiosity, excitement and much more. No matter who you are the process is the same, the experiences are similar but the results always differ from one person to the next.

Like most people across the world, those of us who have exercised the courage to move to another country are forever labelled. Even if you’ve avoided being labelled by your race, the truth is you’ll never escape being labelled by something else. No matter what you achieve in a country, not of your birth, rest assured you’ll learn to embrace being called a migrant.

Accept it, wear it with joy. Do not despise it for it is an unshakable fact of history. It will always be a part of your story but like race, being a migrant doesn’t have to determine how far you go, it shouldn’t have to limit how wide you dream and how much you dare.

Perhaps I’m just being idealistic but I don’t think so. Three years may be too short a period to reflect a lifetime but it’s definitely not too early to build an opinion.

As of today, its now just over three years since I first set eyes on the coast of Sydney. It’s been three years since my old self began to unravel and my new reality emerged. It didn’t take me that long to learn a valuable lesson. A lesson that’s become my guiding statement and what I chose to pass on to you.

It took just 18 days, the kindness of strangers, shelter from an unknown person and the fortune of Heaven's mercy before I was able to get a job earning marginally above minimum wage.

Getting that first job filled me with shock, joy and the ever-present fear of failure. Is this really me? How could I be so lucky? Wow! After 12 years of continuous experience in Marketing and Digital Design, I’d made it.

A freshly minted migrant with hopes, dreams, a 4-year-old visibly excited son and an emotionally conflicted 32-week pregnant wife. I had made it.

I finally had a job with a lifestyle similar to what I left behind, a weekly salary that dwarfed my highest incomes in Lagos. But what most impressed me was this, I was starting at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. I finally had a job but It was at odds with anything I’d ever done before.

Yes, I had finally made it. I had become a labourer. Wow!

My uniform for 87 days. This photo reminds me of my Journey.

I was thankful. I had a job. In a country in which everything and everyone was strange to me, I could earn a legal income. I was thankful, I loved the work but hatred the job. I was a labourer. What in my country of birth would be seen as the lowliest of occupations, the most despised of workers is what I had become.

But this did not matter, in Australia, this is exactly what I deserved and where I needed to start. Sydney is not Lagos. A Lion is not a cat. I would find a way.

I worked all over Sydney across many construction sites. 10-hour shifts, 6 strenuous days every week. I did that job for 87 days. I made a friend and some “frenemies” too. I hated every single minute of it and rejoiced at every paycheck but I was always hopeful, even when I became hopeless.

I never stopped adapting, I never stopped applying for jobs in my industry. The UX and Digital Design industry. With every email, all 275 rejections, I kept a dim flame of hope — a translucent faith in God.

Destiny led me here. To Orange, New South Wales and PYBAR Mining Services. To the job, I didn’t know was mine and to a city, I’ve come to love. I adapted, now I thrive and you can too.

Lucky Country?

Luck is an immeasurably important part of life. It’s the unseen factor in every kind of success. You won’t always get the output you expect, you may wish you had someone to cheer you on, to support you, to push you but sometimes the only person in your corner is you. Just you. No one else and you’ll be tempted to give up. Don’t.

This is an amazing place to build a life. It’s a wonderful country and I believe it’s a land of luck. It’s not a country for naysayers or complainers. Its home to those of us who accept life as what it is but still chose to write our own story.

Life owes you nothing.

Orange NSW, the heart of Central West NSW

Life here is the same as everywhere — only better. It’s a deck of cards. If you really want to win, you just have to keep playing. You’ll stumble, adapt and change your approach until your goals are realised.

You’ll fail but that's just an ingrained part of the journey. Embrace it.

You shouldn't take this journey alone but It's still up to you.

Australia doesn’t owe you s#it!