The Day My Life Changed Forever

PART 2

I remember crying during the middle of my US trip. Camp was a dream and as everyone was planning to return to camp the next summer – and as they all lived in the Northern Hemisphere, it was a piece of cake. For me, as a Southern Hemisphere resident, it would be right in the middle of semester. A semester I could not just skip again.

I tried so hard to work around my schedule, pick online subjects, work out how many lab classes I could miss - I tried everything – but it just wasn’t going to work. That’s when my mum asked me why I was doing speech pathology if I didn’t love it. And just like that, within the next hour I had applied for a journalism course at a different university.

I remember the feeling of anticipation over the next few months, maybe dramatic but I felt as though if I didn’t get in, my life would be over. The same feelings returned over the last two and a bit years when I was waiting for my green card. Would it actually be the end of the world? No – but for me it was all or nothing.

Again with the tears, the last few years had seen me go back and forth to the US and cry everytime I returned home. I’d spend the weeks following my touch-down moody, agitated and somehow on the same confusing websites trying to work out how to get into the country.

Pictured: Girl’s trip to Big Bear in December 2017
I was so lucky to have been able to go back and forth before and during the waiting game. Making friends in the US prior to the move made everything so much easier.

And although the queen of research, it was my mum who discovered the Green Card Lottery. A system where the US accepts 50,000 people from all over the world once a year through a lottery system.

But it’s not as simple as puling someone’s name out of a hat. Firstly, there’s only a small window of time that they accept applications each year. I found out about it late 2015, days after the cut-off, which meant waiting a whole year waiting before I could even put down my name.

October 2016 came – I had the date saved in my calendar and bam, just like that I filled out the first application which ensures you are eligible e.g. education levels etc. and joined the waiting game.

It wasn’t until May 2017 until I heard anything. There’s nothing keeping you in the loop, you just check your emails hoping one day good news would be in your inbox. And there it was. I couldn’t believe it, round one complete. May’s form was much more intense. It actually took me nearly four hours to fill out! The tricky part for me was my prior US deportation. I answered honestly but had no clue whether or not my past experience would backfire. From what became my go-to ice-breaking conversation starter and yearly ‘jailiversary’ party, could very well have been the one mistake that could take my dream away.

I would not hear the next bit of news until 15th October 2017. I got my number. 576. That meant there were 575 other Australians in front of me. Some years they choose to cut-off your country’s quota before all numbers are seen. At 576, I was worried this would happen and I’d lose out.

Some of the food from my first Jailiversary!

At this point, they started sending out newsletters. In there I was able to see what number they were up to each month. According to 2017’s round of applicants, 576 should have seen me attend my interview in December. But in my 2018 round, just over 200 people had been seen by that time.  It was still a waiting game.

I spent the first half of December in the US and days after I returned home, I was blessed with a date. February 13th. It was really happening.

Instantaneously, I hopped on the phone and booked my medical test. Friday January 12th was the date I was given and I ensured up to that point my diet and health etc. was the best it could be – didn’t need any unnecessarily complications when I was so close.

The medical test itself was intense. You can’t really prepare, but it’s three hours of blood tests, x-rays and one extremely long questionnaire. You can only see one of two doctors in Sydney to get the test done, so lucky Dr. Rappaport was so lovely and made the process as smooth as possible. During the exam, she told me that if I had gotten this far it was pretty much guaranteed I’d make it in, she however wasn’t aware of my past deportation issues.

The next month was the longest yet. Each day was getting closer but it still felt like forever away. I went to Byron Bay for my birthday and told a few more friends. I wanted to share the final bit of my experience but at the same time I knew it would be even harder if I didn’t get it. Up until this point, only about three of my friends knew I had applied.

At this time, anxiety was on a whole other level. I remember randomly crying on a train one day. This happened quite a bit over the two years when I thought about it too much. I’ve never been a stressed or anxious person til this process. And it’s no-one’s fault, it’s just that there’s no information and you have no idea what’s happening in the next few months, whether your life will change or not – so much to think about. So as much as possible, I kept my mind away from it.

I’m also quite an organised person and enjoy packing so even when I went overseas for six months, did it the night before. But for my visa, two weeks before saw me get all my paperwork together. I took my time, collated everything just make sure I felt as zen as could be. The next few weeks saw me sift through the folder about ten more times just to double, triple, quadruple check all was good, and it was.