May 1, 2019

Emigration: How It All Began

Recently, my parents asked me where the “sudden” desire for a life abroad came from. According to them, I neither had an increased wanderlust during my childhood, nor did a longing for a life far away from home become apparent later on. Even during school, I never went abroad (Daniel didn’t either) – despite the fact that the bilingual high school I attended not only supported but even encouraged an overseas stay.

So where did the desire to go abroad come from?

Unlike me, my younger brother spent time abroad during his 11th grade. And while my stay abroad, had it happened, would have been in France due to my academic orientation, he longed for the English-speaking, and from our perspective back then, faraway America. He spent an entire school year in Portland, Oregon. At the end of his stay, my parents and I visited him to explore the West Coast of America by car. And I strongly suspect that this is where the origin of my desire lies. When picking up my brother, I could see the development he had undergone in a year – not only linguistically, but in many other respects as well. As an older sister, I was of course mainly proud of my little brother, but perhaps secretly also a bit envious. While he had gained a lot of experiences and displayed a whole new level of openness, I had nothing to share. I was stuck in the same daily routine as before his departure a year earlier: apprenticeship, vocational school, evening off, weekend. Week after week.

Photo from Wolfram K. via pexels.

I really enjoyed the vacation in America, and the road trip through the state of California left a lasting impression. Maybe it was because I viewed the trip through the eyes of an older sister trying to understand and relate to her little brother’s life in America. Or perhaps it was because TV shows like OC California and Gossip Girl romanticized the American lives of (the rich and beautiful) American teenagers at the time. In America, everything seemed possible if a wealthy family from Newport could take in a boy from a socially disadvantaged background into their pool house… While the show exaggerated a bit, I still appreciate America’s openness, friendliness, and warmth. Even if some Germans might find it superficial, it’s nice, and I think it’s great.

Whatever exactly set things in motion, for me, its origin is definitely tied to that first trip to America. Because one thing was clear to me after the vacation: I also wanted to live in America someday, preferably in a house on the coast of Orange County, like Ryan and Marissa, or at least like my little brother.

Photo from Nathan Moore via Pexels.
 

For Daniel, the desire came much later. He can probably pinpoint it better himself, but from my perspective, the origin also lies in a vacation in America. Once again, we were in California, and once again, we tried to understand and imitate the lives and society of Americans during our trip. Our friends, whom we had made in the meantime, tried to show us their lives as best as they could. One evening, they took us to their favorite restaurant, the Besta Wan Pizza House, which ironically reminded us a bit of a pizza joint in Kreuzberg with scribbles on the tables and walls. We sat there, trying to decipher the sketches and sayings on the tables. And there it was: Life begins where your comfort zone ends. I think that was the moment for Daniel when the desire for adventure, for more, first emerged. Our life in Germany was certainly comfortable, but was that all we wanted to achieve in life? Especially since this comfort – thanks to the safe country of Germany – was practically handed to us from birth. We hardly had to do more than be born with a bit of intelligence and a great deal of luck.

A few more trips to the USA, the realization that our school English was slowly but surely deteriorating, and the book “The Big 5 for Life” later, it was clear to both of us: We want to go abroad! Maybe not forever, but definitely once in a lifetime! We wanted to go to America. So we made plans, devised strategies, made contacts, took private English lessons… Only to end up not going to America at all. How that came about and how we still managed to move abroad, you’ll find out in the next post.

Photo and Title photo from Dark Astraal via pexels.

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