Leaving Venezuela: How Hard is it?

Venezuela, that welcoming country that was famous for receiving millions of immigrants in the 20th century, is currently experiencing serious political, social and economical issues. Most of us already know this, don't we? But FOR MY INTERNATIONAL READERS: This is the main reason about why we Venezuelans are moving to other lands. We are looking for safety and a most favorable future, basically. Although it seems easy to write it, the process of actually moving to an overseas city, even if it is so close to home, it's very hard, and when I say hard, I mean it. Don't worry, if you are Venezuelan and you are planning to move somewhere else, my intention is not to freak you out, but to warn you that not everything will be magical.

I'm going to explain you why through my own experiences, my fellow reader!

1) I feel this city isn't for me!

When I only had a few weeks in San Francisco, CA, I just wondered to myself: "What am I doing here?" This has a name: Adjustment process, that period of time that might last either days, months, or years that takes to learn to love the new city where you are living. In my case, it generally lasts 2-3 months. Even when I had made some friends in SF and lived with my sister in the same apartment, I just didn't feel comfortable there. I hated everything! The people, the weather, my university (just a little bit) and other things. This also happened to me in Miami. But again, don't freak-out! Throughout time, I started to like everything much much better, and that will probably happen to you as well. It's just the beginning what is really difficult.

Maiquetia International Airport, which serves Caracas.

Image from www.pinterest.com

2) Loneliness

Even if you have made some friends in your school and live with family, you might still feel a bit lonely at first. At the beginning, when I talked with my friends in Caracas by FaceTime or phone, I felt a tremendous nostalgia. And that doesn't mean that I didn't like my new friends, but I just didn't feel as comfortable with them as I felt with my Caracas friends. However, once you fit into a group, you begin to feel way better too. With your new group, you start to feel that you own the city!

3) Money might not be enough

The Venezuelan government created in 2003 CADIVI, the Venezuelan government body that administrates the legal currency exchange in Venezuela . Nowadays is called CENCOEX (National Center for Foreign Commerce). Since we have a currency exchange control in Venezuela, this body sells dollars to Venezuelans at a lower price than the actual one of the black market, which is currently nearly 2000 bolivares for a dollar. Buying dollars from the black market is technically illegal in Venezuela, but everybody does it. The issue is that if you want to use those CENCOEX dollars to pay your school, this body might not sell you those dollars because it just doesn't approve your major or school, and that means that you will have to pay your education abroad with dollars purchased at the black market by yourself or your family, which is way more expensive. Thus, you may have to do many sacrifices to save your money while you are studying because you or your family will be already spending so much in your education.

4) Politically Inactive

When I lived back in Venezuela, I used to participate in several political protests against the current government. Now that I'm out of the country, I feel there's no much I can do for it than trying to represent it as well as possible. Sometimes, when I see images and videos of the recent massive Venezuelan marches, my skin bristles because I feel I really, really want to be there! However, it is possible to organize marches from abroad in your own city, but that doesn't feel the same, although it also helps. I should probably do it in Miami...

Last October 26 Caracas march

5) You miss your brothers!

You will never find friends such as your brothers from another mother from childhood. Those are more than friends, those are your brothers. The good thing here is that every time I go back to Caracas to visit, I feel so happy to see them and to be back to bother them as I've always done. And believe me, every time I see them after a long time, it just feels like I never stopped seeing them. Nothing changes, just the distance that separates us. Brotherhood is that strong.

6) Will I ever be back to Venezuela soon?

This is an unanswerable question for most of Venezuelans nowadays. Not having the certainty of how long you will still have to spend in another country is tough, because most of us really want to go back. As a popular Venezuelan song says "A tu lado está mi felicidad " which in English means something like "My happiness is in you". If we are happy when we visit there despite all the problems that exist now, imagine how happy we would be if we were a country with an stable situation, like Colombia or Mexico, for example. I might be happy in Miami so far, but trust me, I will never be as happy as in Venezuela. For that reason, I'm sure I will be back someday, hopefully a not very far day.

Me at my hometown, Caracas.