If you have a dream, don’t let go, work towards it and eventually, it will happen (as cheesy as it sounds it is true). I had been dreaming of Hawaii for so long that I couldn’t get it out of my mind and all of my thoughts ended up with “how could I make this happen?”.
Introduction to the Hawaii roller-coaster ride
Let’s start from the beginning. I have always felt that my life has to be more than just studying, finding a job that I’ll do for the rest of my life, and raising kids. So I have always had that travel bug inside me which makes me so stubborn about going on new adventures. Read more about it here.
I made one of my biggest dreams come true when I was in university. I had known for at least 3 years then that I will go to Hawaii when I’m in university. For sure I had a plan and then the agency who was supposed to help me with the visa and everything else told me that they can’t do it because the laws had changed. Probably because the USA had just elected a new president (you probably know who I’m talking about).
Source: giphy.com
The roller-coaster ride
I was devastated and felt like my dreams had been crushed into thousands of pieces. But it just made me stronger and I decided to fight for my dreams. I started looking for another agency that could provide me, a girl from a tiny country named Estonia, with a work & travel visa to the USA, Hawaii. I can’t remember all the details at the moment but I know that I contacted some of the students who had been to Hawaii previously. Some of them wanted to go again and were also looking for new ways to get a visa.
I contacted companies from several countries directly but every one of them said that I have to have a representative from my native country. I almost lost hope until I found an agency which was willing to help me. Let me tell you, the price was twice (if not more) as high as I had anticipated. But it didn’t take me long to decide that I will accept their offer because at that time it felt like there was no other way. It was this or nothing.
I'm on my way to Hawaii...?
So the preparations began. After lots of correspondence and Skype calls, I had two jobs waiting for me in Honolulu. The dream had started to feel even more real.. I already felt that this summer was going to be legen… WAIT for it..
Not dary.. Sometimes when it feels too good to be true, it really is. So one day when I was at work I got a message from my agent that there have been some complications and that they can’t help me with going to Hawaii. Don’t ask why because even I don’t remember exactly why. It was something about only letting me work in specific states.
Another obstacle in my way. I think I even considered giving up but I had come too far to just drop everything. I started thinking about new ways I could make my dream come true even when it seemed impossible and obstacles kept popping up.
Simultaneously, I came to the idea that I could work somewhere else for a while and then go to Hawaii for a vacation. I had already heard that some Estonians will also go to Hawaii.
Happy ending?
So I had decided. My agency gave me two choices. New Jersey or South Carolina. I chose South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, probably because they told me that another Estonian girl will also go there and that she had been there last summer too.
So I contacted her and asked her questions like why should I go there, what are the benefits and why is she going back. Everything seemed alright and I started to feel more confident about my choice. I was going to work all summer to make my dream of going to Hawaii come true.
This time it was easier to find a job because the agency provided me with the job and a place to live. So the only thing left to do finding cheap flight tickets…
Let me know in the comments or on Instagram if you would like to read about my trip to Hawaii or work experience in Myrtle Beach more specifically. Then I’ll write more blog posts about them.
Waiting for another blog post!
Will come soon! 😍🙌