Hello everyone,
As this is going to be my first blog post, not only on Steemit but in general, I think it will be good if I present myself, and my goals starting this blog.
My name is Asen Panayotov and I am currently 21 years old. As many kids in my age, I also wanted to achieve something great in life, do more than what I was supposed to. That took me to a moment of my life when I was supposed to leave my family and kind of take my life into my own hands. That crucial moment for me was at the age of 14.
So At this point in time, many of you think that sounds impossible or irresponsible. You are most probably right! That age was not the best to leave my family and face reality, but I really had to. I was coming from a small city in the middle of a poor country in East Europe, and to make my dreams come true, I needed to move to the capital, to continue my studies, and work for something better.
Now, what the hell means goals and a better life at age of 14 - literally nothing. You cant get a proper job at that age, you can't really even open a bank account, or start trading, or doing some great business, what you can do and what I did was to focus on my studies, and taking some part-time jobs after school and in the weekends.
Well, that might doesn't yet seem as better life, things are getting better and better.
As soon as I graduated my high school degree in software engineering I made a step forward by moving to the Netherlands and I can tell that this was my game changer.
Now what I mean by game changer, is not that I became insanely rich the moment I stepped in this country, or that my life became a dream. The game change was the last step of recognizing myself as a grown person with responsibilities, finding my place in the society, being capable of having a personal point of view of situations and learning to defend it.
Here comes the interesting part. My life did not only get worse but the way I was accepting this world changed. I am coming from a really small country, where almost everything is possible. We even have a saying:
"What does not happen with money, it does with a lot of money".
In your own country, doesn't matter how bad your life is, at the end you still speak the language, you still know some people here and there. Even if you're kicked out from society, you still perhaps have at least one friend, or family, someone you can trust. Starting a new life in a new country I can say is quite hard. That is how I managed to realize myself. From a kid that had somebody around all the time, I was popular between the schools, one way or another, things were just happening, I knew myself as a really self-confident person, sometimes even that confident that it looked stupid in peoples eyes. At the end of the day, I always had my home to go back to. My apartment, that I had no responsibilities to pay rent, only g/w/e (but that in Bulgaria was not that expensive).
Coming with the idea to study in university here, made me realize really soon that I need a good job.
Life here was way more expensive than they were presenting it back in my country. The 500 euro per month for living became 500 for rent only. You can do the rest of the math. I was looking for a job, and at the same time trying to stay focused and dedicated to the University. A few months later I was completely...
I have finally had found a job, but it was warehouse employee job, unloading trucks 5 to 6 nights per week, all night long, with short brakes, terrible logistics companies. The problem was that I was not getting enough, bills were just getting stacked in my post, the fee for the university was late, and I was already working night shifts so I can earn more.
Not getting enough sleep, not making enough money, results in university were going down. I was just failing from all points of view. Then I had to make the hard decision and quit university, even that was one of my dreams, I was just not capable of. I quit my university and my job. I had thousands of euros in debts, to friends, family, institutions, and it was not getting better, until one day that I got my shit together and found a new job. It was the same warehouse employee position but there was something different. Something made me see a possibility of growth in this company so since I had nothing to lose I put all my effort at work and bam, a few months later I was the team leader of the warehouse. Few more months later bam - assistant logistics manager. Now after a year and a half in this company I was again promoted to the Purchasing department.
My life is getting better slowly, my debts are being covered monthly, I don't really live the expensive life right now, but I can not complain. And now enough with the story of my life but my idea of joining Steemit.
Since I am currently working 40 hours per week, I can not afford to have a proper income from a second job.
Why does that matter, since already I am making the month somehow. Well, I have an idea. I want to help more students coming from abroad. I want to help as many students as possible to follow their dreams. I have seen a lot of kids with potential forced to get back to their own countries and stop their development just because of the factor money. This blog is not supposed to be just another motivational blog, asking people to invest money, or telling false stories, just to get into pyramid structure company. This is my way to solve my financial situation, use it as an example, and basis to grow a small company uniting students with needs. I do beleive in my doing, and i hope you will like my future content and will support me.
