Becoming A World Citizen

Two weeks ago it was the final step of a process that started unconsciously 16.5 years ago in 2003 when I came to the UK for the first time being a teenager from Argentina. I became British. But this article is not about having dual citizenship but my journey. The process. Who I became. At this point you can stop reading as you know the ending. However, if you stay, you’ll be boarding my journey with the first stop being 2003.

I was a kid who only wanted to travel the world and Cambridge was my first real opportunity. I lived with a host family for 4 weeks and studied close to the University of Cambridge. I would cycle every day to my English lessons and study at the library for several hours to make the best use of the opportunity while meeting some extraordinary people from all over the world in a similar situation. This experience only lasted a month but stayed with me forever. I promised I’d be back one day. I started Uni in Buenos Aires in 2004 and it kept my busy for very long time as I decided to go for Industrial Engineering targeting 2009 to finish. Yep, 6 full years if everything was on time. I was never the smartest but definitely one of the hardest workers. My first three years were about building the foundations, hence tons of hours doing math, physics and chemistry for 992 official hours. Oh yes, it was not fun but it was strongly needed. My 4^th and 5^th year of Uni it was more about economics, processes efficiency, project management and so on for 1,088 hours and my 6^th and final year 736 hours of product design, industry, quality control, finance and business subjects in addition to 320 hours of optional subjects + extra 200 hours of internship. This was 3,336 official hours of University in Buenos Aires. If counting also the time spent to study and prepare projects, I’d bring the total to 10,000 hours. Let’s go back to my 5^th year at Uni as this was one of the key moments of my life. I heard there was a Program from the Embassy of France in Argentina and the Government of Argentina where my Uni was participating and only 2 students could travel every semester as part of an Exchange/Specialisation assignment. Guess what, I applied. This was my opportunity to go back to the UK as promised one day. Oh wait, but this was a Program to go to France. Alright, I needed to learn French, not an issue. Whatever required. I was so excited till I was informed I was not on the Top 2. Alright, next time. I applied for the 2^nd time and failed. OK, I’d give another go in 6 months. It was my last year of Uni, not too much time left to earn one spot for the Program. I applied for the 3^rd time, failed again. I became close, I was in the Top 6. But you know, from Top 6 to Top 2 it was a long way. At this point, I failed 3 times and I was on my way to the last semester before graduating. One last chance. I had mixed feelings, I thought I was not good enough, it was not meant to be and all negative thoughts you could imagine. Luckily, the frustration about 3 failures lasted some weeks. I acknowledged my weaknesses, tried to come up with a plan and slowly recovered emotionally to be back in the game. I applied for the last time. All or nothing. I wanted to be in peace with myself and know that I gave everything I could. This was my last chance for the opportunity of my life. I couldn’t even afford going on a road trip in Buenos Aires as I had no money. All I had was an unbelievable strong desire and passion to work hard. But I needed just one opportunity. These ones didn’t come very often for mortals like myself living so far away. I prepared myself to be ready for this opportunity for many years. During the week of the results I was pale, sick, trembling but dreaming every day. The day came. Results were about to be announced. My heart rate was probably at 200 bpm. They called me to see the Director. I was requested a meeting at this office. He was a man of few words. A wise one. An inspirational individual. He was about to open his mouth. I was terrified. I was not sure if I could tolerate my 4^th failure even though I prepared myself emotionally for this. I was in peace with myself. I knew there was nothing else I could have done more. The Director said “Congratulations Alejandro, you earned the scholarship and we trust you to represent us in France.” I was speechless. I wanted to say so many things and couldn’t say anything. We shook hands, I left the office. Suddenly, something clicked and my mind was full of flashbacks and flashforwards. Oh, this was for real. The message was sent to my brain and my brain triggered a switch. Emotions kicked in and I started to cry. This was very unusual as I hardly ever expressed my feelings. I was a robot with the objective of getting the degree and travel. Robots don’t have feelings. Well, I played very well being a robot but sometimes things were painful and perhaps I didn’t want them to stay too long to keep going. I shared the great news with my family and they were all over the moon like me. Very supportive. The young boy was leaving home in 3 months. Alright, don’t panic. I thought they were supportive but their body language was not in line with their initial manifestation. The scholarship was only for 6 months as well as my return ticket. That was the opportunity. Do what you want for 6 months, Alejandro. Of course, I never thought of it as 6 months but longer. This was my chance, yes! I wanted to travel the world, live abroad, work with multicultural people, speak different languages, learn new things, be independent, grow at a different scale, just wanted to live the life I wanted and not the life that written in the safety book.

I left my beloved Buenos Aires in January 2010. My next destination: Troyes. A town in the Grand Est region of northeastern France. Its medieval old town features narrow, cobbled streets lined with colourful, half-timbered houses, mostly dating from the 16th century. I was about to study there for 6 months at the University of Technology of Troyes. After that, back to Buenos Aires… or perhaps trying to stay for another 6 months to do an internship. But how? My French was very rustic, I didn’t understand local people, they were speaking too fast. Well, that was the normal pace. I was just slow. Challenges never scared me; hence I was ready to give it a go. My first month was an intensive French course plus many hours at the library. Oh yes, memories from 2003 in the UK when I was a teenager. But now I was becoming a young professional. That month I studied probably 12 hours every day because they only gave us one month before starting classes to be ready to meet the French people and have subjects in French at Uni. I was super excited. The month passed and I increased my level, I thought I was ready. First day of classes. Wow, who were these folks speaking so fast? How would they feel if I were to talk to them in English? Was it true that it was rude to approach them in English? Why would I do that? I introduced myself. I couldn’t follow much. It was embarrassing. Even the classes, I needed to take home the material, read many times to understand while still learning grammar and vocabulary. I also started to send my CV for an internship. What? I was absolutely crazy. I was not good enough to understand even one lesson and I wanted to work there competing with locals? What was backing up my decision? Again, this negative feeling disappeared quickly from my mind, I acknowledged my weaknesses and I focused on being better. I needed to study more, to listen to the radio, podcasts, music, read newspapers, books, speak with locals even though I made 1,000 mistakes. I started to receive feedback on my internship applications. I think I sent my application to 100 different places and 99 were rejected. The one that was not rejected asked me to have an interview via phone. I was not able to follow locals. So I decided to prepare questions and answers and focus on that regardless the questions the interviewer might have. This was exactly what happened. I caught 2-3 words here and there and linked them with my prepared speech. Few weeks past and they told me they wanted another interview but with Managers. Oh my God! What can I prepare now? This was utterly difficult. This people were from the South, I didn’t understand the accent very well, I was still learning and my French was very rustic. Alright, I prepared some extra questions and became more technical. They called me and I didn’t understand much as expected but tried to go back to my plan. I had prepared some bullet points I wanted to share at the right moment and that’s exactly what I did. This time, it was a bit more challenging as my plan experienced some deviations. I was being interrupted and new questions were coming. I was not good at improvising in Spanish, imagine in French. End of the interview. Few weeks past and no news. I went on a little holiday to different places in Europe. Yep, I needed to make a good use of my short stay in the Old Continent. I received a letter. French loved letters. The letter had a text saying “Congratulations – we would like to offer you an internship with us in the South of France”. Wow. It was happening. I spoke to my Uni in France and told them about it so they got in touch and arranged the formalities. Guess what, after couple of months I improved and I was able to have conversations without even realising. I was able to present at the classroom. I partnered with French classmates. I joined them for parties. Who I was becoming? In what moment my brain switched? How was it possible when few months ago I was so bad? I don’t know. All I know is that I never gave up. But wait, summer was coming and it was time to move to the South. It was time to find a place to live and make all the arrangements. This was a lot of money. My scholarship was coming to an end in summer and hence my money. How would I survive? I had no one to help me. I needed to make sure my internship salary was enough to pay my new rent, bills and food… and perhaps allowed me to save a bit for some trips before going back to Argentina in winter. Wait, who said I wanted to come back? Yes, I know. It was 6 months initially and then 1 year. Why more? Wasn’t it enough? Certainly not.

Summer came. It was time to say good-bye to all my mates in Troyes. It was time to get to Fos-sur-mer. A small village….. I took a train with suitcases and backpacks from Troyes to Paris, from Paris I took a flight to Marseille and from there a train to Fos-sur-mer. At this point I can’t remember how many hours but it felt like a full day. For the first few nights I used Couchsurfing (somebody freely allowing you to surf his/her sofa for some nights) as I had very little money to afford any sort of hotel and that was also one of my ways of travelling in Europe besides cheap hostels. My new flat was ready. It was by the beach. It was very small but I didn’t care too much as long as there was a bed. My first day of internship was about to start. I couldn’t sleep the night before. I was nervous and cried to levels that I could only compare in my childhood. I was freaking out. Even though I had significantly improved my language skills, this time the challenge was different. They were all native French speakers. No international folks. Moreover, working was tougher, you needed to deliver straight away. The internship was 4.1 km away from my place. I didn’t have any car and it was all motorway. I walked to work making sure I was close to the side path as cars were quite fast. It took me around 45 minutes to arrive. I was sweating. It was not a good first impression but I didn’t have any other means to get to work. I met my new boss and team members and other people. It was a refinery. Certainly, being a young engineer and having had a first experience back home in such an environment made things initially a bit easier. However, I quickly realised that whatever worked in the past wouldn’t work any longer. I needed to push myself to a new level. I needed to keep up with my new colleagues. But first, I needed to close the language gaps to then focus on the technical gaps. I used pretty much all my time to focus on those areas of improvement. On the other hand, I also decided to start applying for a permanent job somewhere in France. I didn’t want the internship to end and go back home. I sent countless CVs. Everywhere. Most of them rejected as always. I had some flashbacks from the time I had applied to my internship. This time was much more challenging. Extremely competitive. It was a permanent job at stake. I needed to be as good as local French speakers and professionals at least to have a chance to be considered. Months were passing. It was November, not too much time left and I had 2 real opportunities after being rejected almost everywhere. One in a place called Limoges, a city in southwest-central France, known for its decorated porcelain and the other one in Paris. I went to the interview in Limoges and they never came back to me, meaning one more rejection. Alright, last chance. It was Tuesday 16^th November of 2010, I had a phone interview for this firm in Paris. The day after, Wednesday 17^th November another phone interview with a different person from the same firm. Friday 19^th I had the final round in Paris. I took the train from Fos-sur-mer to Marseille and then to Paris. It was all or nothing. On Tuesday 23^rd November they offered me the role. A permanent role in this firm in Paris. This role was about being in Paris for 6 months and the other 6 months in London to finally come back to Paris. Game changer. I changed my flight ticket to be in Buenos Aires for Christmas and New Year as when back I knew I had only a single ticket. I made it. I fought for this. I didn’t have money. I didn’t have any house. I didn’t have any expensive stuff. My laptop was so old that only MS Word worked and my email, all I needed to write my CV and share via e-mail. My phone was so old that I needed to restart it few times to work. I lost countless battles. So many that I cannot even describe on these paragraphs. But every lost battle gave me a lesson even though back then it was tough to understand. Every lost battle gave me the opportunity to find the way to ultimately win the war. This war was my objective to stay in Europe and start my journey. This was the beginning.

As many of you know, I lived in France for 3 years and then relocated to London in early 2013. Yep, over 6 years. All I needed to apply for the British Citizenship. On 17^th August 2019 I applied for it. I received the key sentence from the Home Office on 22^nd October 2019: “I am pleased to tell you that this application for the British Citizenship has been approved”. Two days later I received the invite from my council for the ceremony taking place on 2^nd December 2019. I became British after the pleasant ceremony in my local County Council.

The ceremony was structured as follows:
1. Entrance of the Chairman of the Country Council and the Deputy Lieutenant of the County.
2. Welcome and Introduction.
3. Welcome to the County Community (Chairman of the County Council).
4. Oath or Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second and Pledge of Loyalty to the United Kingdom.

I…do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that on becoming British Citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law.
I will give my loyalty to the United Kingdom and respect its rights and freedoms. I will uphold its democratic values. I will observe its laws faithfully and fulfill my duties and obligations as a British Citizen.

5. Presentation of Certificates of Naturalisation.
6. Congratulations on achieving British Citizenship (Deputy Lieutenant).
7. National Anthem
8. Closing Remarks.
9. Refreshments.

When people ask me where I’m from it’s always complicated as I need to explain where I was born and raised, where my ancestors came from, where I studied, where I worked and where I lived. This is where Argentina, Italy, France, Switzerland and the UK come to one complex equation. Perhaps a world citizen would be an easier answer.

This was my journey. At least a little part I wanted to share it with you. I’m grateful to my family and all the people part of it during these 10 years abroad. Without them, this would not have been possible.