REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE FULLY…

I started working when I was 21, freshly graduating from college in summer 2000. I quickly found a job as an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) instructor in a vocational school in Chisinau, Moldova. After three months though, I left to teach EFL in a big private school. I was delighted: full-time work, good salary, close to home, nice part of the city. I began my independent adult life that I had striven for since I left home four years earlier. My employer was a soft-spoken, nice and kind lady who loved us all (we were 8-9 young teachers working in her school). We had flowers on Teacher’s day, cake on birthdays, Christmas parties and lots of amazing teaching experiences with kids of all ages and adults. Evening language classes for adults were very popular so I worked from 2 to 9 pm for five years, Monday to Saturday.

Be curious about life, and Life will reward you.

In April 2006 I immigrated to Canada. It took me two years to go through the tests and examinations, but I arrived in Montreal as a permanent resident, single, happy and ready for a new adventure. My three survival jobs as shop assistant in a bakery, a receptionist in an Ob/Gyn office and a telemarketer, opened the doors of the Montreal labour market for me.  A year later, I knew that:

• a good job is hard to find and one must learn how to look for it,
• my CV needed a significant adaptation to the country I moved to,
• and – most importantly –I felt blessed to be able to speak both French and English.  

In 2007, I was accepted to Concordia to do a Bachelor’s degree in Translation. An avid reader and writer all my life, I had this dream of becoming a translator/interpreter who juggles with words from Romanian to Russian to English to French and back to Romanian, and it felt great to be able to study translation, while the government helped me with a bursary. I loved studying! Made friends, found a boyfriend, moved to a quiet studio, life was interesting. I especially loved spending time in town, so many places to visit and so much joy and liveliness!

Two years later, I was looking for work. After about 60 CVs sent out and 4 interviews, I was hired as a Project Manager assistant in a translation firm downtown Montreal. I was happy and relieved. But soon my joy turned to distress because my boss was a bully. Everyone was afraid of her! She was brazen, talkative, attention-seeking, and a micro-manager. Seven months later, I was crying in the mornings on my way to work, deeply unhappy, flirting with a mild depression, losing my soul in a job where all that mattered was: numbers and quantity and speed. Two weeks later, I found a job in a language school. (We will speak about the bully-boss again, so stay tuned, dear reader!)