17
#1 (4) март 2018
I was there in chat room to talk to people from other countries to practice English and just like that, one of them was my husband. We still laugh at it; we met online when online almost did not exist.
2001, I knew I was moving… I was leaving, leaving everything I knew and every one I knew and loved… going on the other side of the world… the side where nobody was waiting for me… was I ready, was I prepared. Now I know the answers:) I WAS NOT… I thought I knew English and oh boy, it was time to wake up. For the first 1-2 years in USA I was truly scared, scared that I will not make it, scared that I will not learn or will not find my place in life. I realized that I do not know anything about their culture, hardly know their language and need to do something. I give most of the credit to my husband for been my everything here, for sticking by my side through good days and bad days, days when all I wanted to do is to cry, days when I really doubted myself.
So first thing first, how do I learn the language and learn it quick. Well I decide that I need to get a job somewhere where I am exposed to all the different people with all the different accents at all the times. No computers, no sitting and hiding behind the desk and no paperwork just people talking to me from morning till night. I went to one of the largest mall on East Coast and that day got a job as sales associate on the sales floor working with clients from morning till night talking to them about everything and anything. It was hard, really hard, by 2nd month I could get through the day without thinning I am having a hear attack. After 3 month I decided that I could handle it and getting comfortable so I started to look for companies to apply for real job, job I went to school for. I looked into Coca-Cola, Pepsi, IMB, prepared my resume, translated and notarized everything from school and then I met my husband’s friend Patty, we talked about what I was planning to do, what education I have, how long I was here for and where did I learn the language:) After casual conversation she said, why don’t you come over and talked to me tomorrow at the office. I said sure and took her business card. Next day I was sitting across from her in the largest family owned real estate company in the country. We spoke for about 30 minutes and at the end of it she told me that she would love for me to come and join her as she was looking to expand her team, her real estate team. At that time Patty McCarthy was in the top 5% of real estate brokers of United States.