LIVING IN AN UNKNOWN PLACE

 LIVING IN AN UNKNOWN PLACE

It was not really an unknown place. It is a country known for its oil industry, for its friendly economy, for its high society. But for a first timer, traveling and living in a different country 5,028 miles away from home country seemed the place is uncharted, unknown.

So, how to live in a place you barely knew? How to adapt with its culture? How do you live without pork serve in your meal to which pork is practically your daily dose of energy? How to deal with its people? How do you know this woman is not that woman because all women are wearing the traditional hijab with black long dress called abaya and niqab covering all the face except the eyes? How to adjust with the traditions and beliefs?

No one said it would be easy. It will never be easy to just stay in the country for the first time and suddenly adapt to its rules and regulations. It will give you a culture shock that is for sure. But you will adjust. You will survive.

And how do you do it?

Simple.

Be like them.

Dress like them.

Think like them.

And you will survive.

Easy to say. Yes. But it is kind of hard to execute. Well, that is if your heart is weak and do not accept and welcome any change in your life.

So, living in a different country was never easy. Your family is miles away from you. Sometimes, when you feel very down, you just wanted a console or a hug from your parents. There is video chat, yes, but the impact is different when they are physically with you at your most vulnerable time rather than just chatting over the phone.

Another thing, the people. There might be people of the same nationality as you, but sometimes, they were the ones who will bring you down instead of supporting you. This was when you finally learn the meaning of crab mentality among your nation. People of the same country exposing dirt about each other to know who gain more sympathy. Some of them will treat you as their real family, some will be your best friends for a lifetime, but most of them will pretend they care but they only care about issues to spread and not your well-being.

Next, people of different nationality. Who said everyone will like you? That is a lie. Well, that is at least to those like you who came from other nations who also just resides in the country and working their shit off for a living and saves money. They will smile in front of you then 1 sec after, they began blabbering about your attitude to everyone even if you are not really doing anything to them. They just don’t like you, that’s it, and they began spreading rumors to other like a wild fire. Some gets your attention, show you some kindness but after accepting their so-called generosity, they will began playing you under the table and becomes the meal. Others, you thought they have care but behind the thought of being genuine comes a silent monster who don’t really know how to respect others. It was an act of being an elder to an innocent child but then suddenly uttering hideous words to a kid with no experience at all.

Then there was a challenge among the capitol. You wake up every morning, go to work and you have to pretend you do not know anything. You observe things but you do not know whether what is real and what is not. There were hearsays but no confirmation except for those good-poised people roaming around from the highest floors down to the basement. Still, nothing was confirmed, everything were just hunches.

Another, being in country opens you to a whole new world. Works are in whole new different level than what you used to do. But the thing was, you went to this unknown place and you should know the consequences. There will be ups and downs. Experienced that three folds. There were things that would bring you to hell and that death will suddenly whisper in your ears. Experienced that too three folds. But be brave. Accept those downfalls and you will find a way to go uphill once again. If you’re a Christian or Catholic, pray to God. If you’re a Muslim, pray to Allah. If you’re an atheist, then convince yourself you can survive on your own. There are more than a million ways to conquer the fear and stop the downfalls. You just got to be brave. Dying maybe a fast solution but it will never bring yourself back, nor even your dreams, your future.

Living in an unknown place is scary. Fear will totally cover you. You do not know what kind of things you may experience. You do not know what kind of future you will have in that place. Your experience might bring you disaster, or it may bring you fortune. This place might deliver you to your lowest self, or it may deliver you to your highest. There is no surety how you will survive, if you will survive. But there is one thing you can be sure of. Living in an unknown place will teach you a lot more than books can teach you. It will shape you as to who you what to be. It will help you find the path you long to find or the path you lost and wanted to walk at it again.