The Machine

Coming to US when I did was the best thing I could have done for my future. I learned so much more here than I could have possibly learned anywhere else. I took very well to the competitive and driven environment. The US environement completely complemented my drive to succeed and my master plan. What I did not notice was the personality and character shifting that was taking place. I met someone who held the same values I did and together we became a team focused on making our money and going to Asia. We thought that we were different from everyone else, that thought could not have been farther from the truth.

We both had our own ideas of what would make us happy in life but we both decided to put that to the side and focus on making our money first. Something inside her though kept rebelling, and the monster in me would keep her in check thinking that I was doing this for the benefit of us both. I derailed things for her, but I cannot accept full blame, I never held her agaist her will to do anything despite the fact that I would use words to convnce her to rethink her plans. In any case the machine was born.

That being said I also began to push away my family. For a time I thought that they would only get in the way of things, that their approach to things are too hectic and disorienting. I focused on myself and my girlfriend, that was all that mattered.

On the outside everything seemed perfect, the job, the car, the girlfriend, the dog. Young and successful right? Inside, the two of us were dying. The people we fell in love with were sick with a cancer. Day by day we would long for what we were and what those people wanted in life. The machine had taken its toll. Eventually we would find ourselves in love with people who only existed as a memory.

As a part of my success story I got sponsord for an H1B work visa. It is a long process with lots of hoops and not enough visas to go around. Basically, as an international, this visa is the next best thing to a greencard..unless you get an A visa which is diplomatic, in any case, kids would kill for this little sticker in my passport. Part of the process was fo me to leave the US, go home to Switzerland and finish off the application process. And so I went, the ramifications of my sojourn were so significant...


If you are interested in reading what occurred during my trip go to http//www.burningdownhighways.blogspot.com - More specifically read the posting entitled 'Raison D'etre –