When I was younger, I always knew I wanted to leave home and build a life somewhere else.
Not because I was chasing a specific country or an easier life. I wanted to see if I could build something from scratch in a place where nothing was guaranteed and every step forward had to be earned.
So I packed my bags and left India for Canada.
Like many international students, I arrived with ambition, uncertainty, and a long list of goals. What followed was years of learning how to navigate a new country, manage finances, build a network from scratch, balance work and studies, and push through countless rejections and setbacks that never make it onto LinkedIn.
Eventually, things started falling into place. I earned my degree, landed interviews, received great job offers, and felt like the future I had worked toward was finally within reach.
Very Disney movie ending, right? Not quite.
A week before starting a new role, an unexpected health condition left me in severe pain and forced me to put everything on hold. Unable to access the care I needed in Canada, I returned home for treatment.
What should have been a short interruption became months of recovery, paperwork, and waiting. By the time everything was resolved, I had lost a good amount of time on my work permit without gaining the Canadian work experience I needed.
The chapter I thought I was about to start never actually began.
So now I start again.
The difference is that this time there's a clock attached to the goal.
Today, I have two years remaining on my work permit and need one year of Canadian work experience to continue building my future in Canada.
I've had interviews that didn't become offers. Opportunities that slipped away because of timing. Conversations that seemed promising but went nowhere.
The challenge isn't the work. I've never been afraid of hard work.
The challenge is knowing I already climbed this mountain once, only for life to ask me to start over.
But whenever the uncertainty starts to feel overwhelming, I remember something.
The person who arrived in Canada years ago had no guarantees either.
The only thing he had was a willingness to keep moving forward.
That hasn't changed.
So I keep applying.
I keep learning.
I keep showing up.
I'm still building.
And I'm not finished yet.