Sometimes I ask myself if I made the right decision you know…I think I did… I feel free here and in New Zealand I feel in peace.
Vanesa came to New Zealand from Argentina in 2013 on a working holiday visa. She is a petite woman with a laugh that is larger than life and like many Argentinians, she likes to say “blah,blah,blah” when she tells stories. She is peaceful woman and this personality trait is, according to her, diametrically opposed to how people are in Buenos Aires, the town she is from and grew up in. Vanesa trained as a film maker in Argentina. She had a good life there; a “wonderful” partner who loved her and wanted to build a life with her, a loving family and many friends. She was about to get married. The date was set and preparations …show more content…
She explains that it felt like “I started to live”. Her life now is certainly very different to what is was like at the beginning of her trip when she was backpacking around New Zealand. Then, it was exciting and she was constantly meeting new people, learning English but also speaking Spanish a lot still as she would constantly meet other Spanish speaking travelers. There were new life experiences, exploration, adventures and freedom that comes with being somewhere new so far away from home. At the moment it is a “common” life. She goes to work every day and sometimes works on audiovisual projects, has dinner with her friends; but Vanesa explains that the biggest reason that drove her to decide to stay in New Zealand is the sense of peace she feels here, that she never did back …show more content…
From all these serendipitous life meetings, she wants to learn and to grow. Her heart carries lessons from all the people she has met on her journey who have touched her in one way or another and they have made her a very intuitive woman. She explains that she believes it is important to be open to meet new people and that every encounter “has something very special and important to give you, especially when you are an immigrant”. It is true. A smile, a hug, someone who cares for you and wants to show you the beautiful things about their country and living in it makes a tremendous difference. For many, it is even the difference between staying and leaving.
Now in her thirties, Vanesa is embarking yet on another chapter of her life. She has just quit her job, directed and produced a short film for Crossing The Bridge which you will find on this website and she soon leaves again on a two month adventure to travel through Asia with that very friend who gave her the advice to “relax” all these years ago. English language is still a work in progress and so is her life, but she is so confident and open and expansive about it all. She has no regrets. New Zealand gave her a new lease on life and what’s more exciting is that she has so much to give to it in
Vanesa came to New Zealand from Argentina in 2013 on a working holiday visa. She is a petite woman with a laugh that is larger than life and like many Argentinians, she likes to say “blah,blah,blah” when she tells stories. She is peaceful woman and this personality trait is, according to her, diametrically opposed to how people are in Buenos Aires, the town she is from and grew up in. Vanesa trained as a film maker in Argentina. She had a good life there; a “wonderful” partner who loved her and wanted to build a life with her, a loving family and many friends. She was about to get married. The date was set and preparations …show more content…
She explains that it felt like “I started to live”. Her life now is certainly very different to what is was like at the beginning of her trip when she was backpacking around New Zealand. Then, it was exciting and she was constantly meeting new people, learning English but also speaking Spanish a lot still as she would constantly meet other Spanish speaking travelers. There were new life experiences, exploration, adventures and freedom that comes with being somewhere new so far away from home. At the moment it is a “common” life. She goes to work every day and sometimes works on audiovisual projects, has dinner with her friends; but Vanesa explains that the biggest reason that drove her to decide to stay in New Zealand is the sense of peace she feels here, that she never did back …show more content…
From all these serendipitous life meetings, she wants to learn and to grow. Her heart carries lessons from all the people she has met on her journey who have touched her in one way or another and they have made her a very intuitive woman. She explains that she believes it is important to be open to meet new people and that every encounter “has something very special and important to give you, especially when you are an immigrant”. It is true. A smile, a hug, someone who cares for you and wants to show you the beautiful things about their country and living in it makes a tremendous difference. For many, it is even the difference between staying and leaving.
Now in her thirties, Vanesa is embarking yet on another chapter of her life. She has just quit her job, directed and produced a short film for Crossing The Bridge which you will find on this website and she soon leaves again on a two month adventure to travel through Asia with that very friend who gave her the advice to “relax” all these years ago. English language is still a work in progress and so is her life, but she is so confident and open and expansive about it all. She has no regrets. New Zealand gave her a new lease on life and what’s more exciting is that she has so much to give to it in