How did I get here?

Recently, while I was on holiday in Italy, swimming in the Adriatic, I asked myself, "How did I get here?" When one considers the fact that six years ago I was just fired from job, no foreseeable options for the future and life in general seemed to be spiralling out of control, then this is a pretty reasonable question. So how did I get here? "Here" of course being Germany. Let me tell you. This is my story.



Rewind back to the spring of 2012. I was happily employed at Air Canada in Vancouver, Canada as a baggage handler. It wasn't a glamorous job but it paid the bills. And with the access to the employee flight passes, life was not too bad. Flights could be booked at a moments notice and it was cheap. Like almost free. My favourite trip was the time I flew business class from Vancouver to Copenhagen and back for $40 Canadian. Sweet gig right? I'd be an idiot to screw it up right? Well guess what happened? I tossed it all in the sewer! See, as a kid, I'd always had a problem with authority. That never changed at Air Canada. I thought I was being smart but really I was just acting out like a toddler.

I had this boss. He was jerk. He was also the Director of Air Canada Cargo Operations for the western hemisphere. He was a short, grumpy old man who loved to fire guys. He was once quoted saying "I'll fire right now on the spot. I don't need a reason. You might be able to fight and get your job back, but can you live for six months without pay?" He loved to be feared. So when the day came that he fired 12 guys all at once, I felt I had to do something. See what he loved more than anything was his collection of classic BMW's (Now, I find it sort of ironic that it was a German car that got me into this mess and eventually lead to me moving here). So what I did was, I put his car up for sale on Craigslist. Cheap. With his real phone number and his real address. It's just silly prank we used to pull as kids. Somehow he didn't find it that funny.

A couple of days later I ran into a coworker while getting coffee.

"Did you here about what happened to the Director?" he asked.

"No what happened?" I said, trying to act surprised.

"Somebody put his friggin' car up for sale on Craigslist. He got over a thousand phone calls in two days. Strangers are dropping by his house. He's fuming! He wants BLOOD!" he exclaims.

"Wow! I wonder who would do such a thing?" I asked, all while trying to keep a poker face.

That's when I started to feel like I might have been over my head. After a week or so they had tracked me down. I was called in for a meeting and they suspended me. Two days later I was fired. I immediately filed the paperwork for the appeal but my chances did not look good. I soon took up odd jobs to pay the rent in the meantime and began to contemplate what to do with my life. Things looked pretty bleak.

A silver lining was the cousin of a friend of mine. She was German and in Canada on a working holiday. I had always thought that would be fun to do but I also knew that I was probably too old. Most countries that offer working holiday visas have an age limit. That limit is usually 30. I was 32. It looked like that ship had already sailed. However after a little researching I found that Germany's age limit for a Youth Mobility Visa was 35! I thought to myself 'This might be doable'. Luckily for me, one of my good friends was in Germany. I explained to him the situation I was in. We emailed back and forth and decided we could do it. I had made up my mind, if my appeal was rejected, I would pack up and move to Germany for one year. This is when another close friend of mine said one of the most memorable things anyone has ever said to me. He said:

"Sounds like your plan B is better than your plan A"

We didn't have to worry about plan A too long. Shortly after that, my appeal came back. Rejected. Fired. Plan B was now plan A. I was moving to Germany.

The paperwork was pretty easy. I had an invitation letter and all the necessary documents filled out. They processed it rather quickly. I didn't even have to prove how much money I had. A good thing too, because I had none! Within four days I had my German visa and on October 7th, 2012 I landed in Frankfurt ready to start my one year in Germany.

Mumms in Solingen

The first two months were filled with ups and downs. The highlight however, was after two months of job hunting, I landed a full-time job in a local pub here in Solingen. The fact that they hired me at all was a miracle. I spoke zero German and had no experience as a bartender. I will always be grateful to the owner for taking a chance on me. About a month after I started, a beautiful girl walked into the pub with all of her friends. She used to waitress there and was hosting a welcome home party. In a couple months she would start working there again. Nearly four years after watching her walk into that pub and sit down with all of her friends, that same beautiful girl would become my wife.

At the halfway mark of my one year in Germany I found myself in an amazing relationship, I had made some of the best friends of my life and I was travelling all over Europe discovering new and exciting places. However in the back of my mind there was a ticking clock. And it was getting louder and louder everyday. As the one year deadline approached it seemed like I would really have to leave all of this behind. Then, out of practically nowhere, came the email.

I had applied at a bilingual kindergarten nearly a year earlier. I had never received a response and had completely forgotten about it. Then almost a year after I had applied they emailed me asking if I was still interested in a job as a Native English Speaker. I knew right away that this was my chance. See, the German Employment Office won't grant you a work permit for just any job. You have to prove that you're not stealing a job from a German. That's why they wouldn't extend my work permit just to work in a pub. English Native Speaker though? That's not stealing a job from a German.


I went for the interview, got the job and my visa was approved about a week after my old visa expired. It went right down to the wire. In the end it all worked out.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is how I got here. If one thing can be learned from my story it's that no matter how bleak things seem, keep your chin up. You never know how fast things can turn around or where opportunities will pop up.