!?Why Did You Come back to Your Country
You may not believe this but as tutor who once been an international student studying abroad somewhere in northern Europe for a couple of years I have been forced by my students to respond to this question far too many times. To them it is simply far too odd for a middle eastern to get the chance of going abroad and being there and ever coming back! They look so mysterious and rather shocked by even considering this and may think the poor guy must have gone mad to do something so wrong.
.
I have to respond as simply as I can to get back to my business: teaching English and preparing them for their formidable exam which is called “IELTS”. I may reply “I had not planned to stay there in the first place” or “I did not get a proper job” and this most of the time is good enough to disrupt the conversation and keep them from asking more. Interestingly, for the first couple of years after my return this thought never crossed my mind. I never asked myself why I did not stay in a fine country like Sweden!
.
I had no functioning family or a relationship with siblings that keeps me from staying there. My hometown, Tehran, is a place I have always loathed and future business was dull and vague for a fresh graduate. I may not really be able to say for sure and in a logical manner that it deserves why I made that decision but in retrospect I think that was the best decision I made. Building a great business and finding a fantastic partner are among things I could not probably have achieved there.
.
I think for most young people who fancy a life in the west it is not but something like an online blind date. You don’t really know what road your steps are taking to and interestingly you start drawing a really perfect picture of something may or may not even exist! I don’t say it is always stupid act but I say it makes those who date like this look so unnatural and amateur to me.
///
Pouya Abolqasemi, from the collection “Memories and sheer Madness”
