The topic of studying abroad has been discussed since last year, and in the lamenting sighs of readers, how many children have abandoned their studies and sunk after sinking, and how many children have successfully saved themselves
It is impossible to count the number of people who have cut off their supply, but every time I see or hear the story of children's self-help after studying abroad, I feel very distressed. Being able to successfully help themselves overseas is even more admirable for their wisdom.
Wen 丨Xiong Liang Figure | Courtesy of the author
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*In order to protect the privacy of interviewees, the names are pseudonymized and the currency in the text is RMB
Part.1
Get out of your apartment and stay in a tent and line up for free food
How afraid are you of studying abroad? For a growing youth, it is an absolute fatal blow. Ben, who graduated from the University of Toronto this year, has a large family in the restaurant and travel agency business, which has been hit hard during the pandemic. Referring to the moment he was told to cut off his confession two years ago, he couldn't help but burst into tears.
"Since the supply was cut off, I have developed 'crying disorder'. As long as the mood fluctuates slightly, it will cry a lot. I haven't seen a psychologist because it's too expensive to see a psychologist in Toronto, and after a few visits, the month's living expenses are gone. The only way is to digest myself, and the way for me to digest negative emotions is to dig out my mind to make more money, try my best to save living expenses, and fill up all my time, so that I don't have so much time to be sad. ”
Among the international students who have been cut off, Ben said he is the most serious category, called complete withdrawal.
Two years ago, there were only two paths in front of him, the first was to drop out of school and return to China to work to help his family pay off debts to support himself; The second way is to find ways to earn money in Canada to pay tuition fees and support yourself.
Ben thought how old he was to get admitted after playing with his life, and he really didn't want to give up. But a person without a diploma is estimated to find it difficult to find a high-paying job when he returns to China, let alone pay off debts for his parents, and even support himself enough. It's better to stay in Canada and give it a go, maybe you can find a way to survive.
Ben calculated that the car could be sold for 200,000 yuan, plus there were still hundreds of thousands of cash on hand, just enough to pay the tuition fees for the third year of college. He decided to quit his monthly rent of 15,000 and start his living career.
After selling the car, Ben went to buy an outdoor tent, he said: "The classmate who accompanied me to buy the tent was a rich third generation of Turkish origin, he really thought that I would go to the park near the university to be a homeless man, and immediately sympathized and invited me to live in his house temporarily, and it was free." It is also very ashamed to say, and it is also a survival scheme to announce that he wants to be a homeless man. I calculated how many of my best friends were well-off and lived in their own large apartments or villas. If this resource is used, then my financial pressure can be reduced by more than half. ”
For more than a year, Ben lived mostly in the basement. He also learned that a friend's house cannot live for more than two months, and two months is the limit of being disliked.
In order not to encounter the embarrassment of being blasted out, Ben has been carrying a tent to change accommodation for more than a year, and he laughs that he is about to become a gypsy in Toronto, wandering around.
Once the cost of accommodation was cut off, Ben began to calculate the expenses of daily living. He tried eating restaurant leftovers blind boxes, which cost half the original price, sometimes even lower.
For Ben, who usually doesn't cook, eating leftovers blind boxes is quite suitable. It's a pity that these leftover blind boxes are too random, and there are not hamburgers that can be wrapped every day.
Tims hortons, whom he frequents, once gave him ten donuts for only $25. Ben said: "It is indeed very cost-effective, but how sweet it is here is too burdensome for the body. ”
Compared to the less reliable leftover blind boxes, Ben prefers the Food Bank, which is where food is picked up for free.
Ben said he didn't know how to get it at first, and an experienced homeless man told him that he had to get dirty when he went to Food Bank. The staff may be kind and give not only food, but also toiletries.
Ben followed a group of homeless people to the Food Bank for more than a year to get food, he said: "In the whole Toronto area, he has a clear understanding of which one gives more generous food and which fruit fresh milk is of high quality." It's all about living, better living, being forced out. ”
Part.2
Roasted squid for three months during the summer vacation and earned 100,000 yuan
Money is the basis for Ben to be able to continue his studies, but it is difficult for Ben, who has not worked a day. How to support yourself and earn 300,000 tuition fees in the fourth year of college? Ben said that in the first month of the cut-off, he wanted to "break" his head.
Making money is particularly difficult for him, and according to Canadian law, international students only work 20 hours a week. If you count 100 yuan per hour, you can earn 2,000 yuan a week, 8,000 yuan a month, and 100,000 yuan a year, which is too far away from 300,000.
Ben, who studied finance, believes that according to the laws of economics, the job he wants to find must be less time-consuming and highly profitable. Just by working part-time at McDonald's, with the lowest hourly wage, even not enough to eat, so I can only mobilize wisdom to find money.
Ben believes that it is not difficult to find money in Toronto, depending on whether he wants to do it or not. Talking about his part-time job and earning money, Ben said that it was a little sad, but more of a sense of accomplishment.
Ben's first job was as a mannequin, which Ben's high school classmates recommended. Students studied painting at an art university called OCAD near the University of Tokyo, where there is a lot of demand for mannequins.
Ben is young and fit, and after seeing his photo, Party A is very satisfied. The price of 500 yuan per hour made Ben quite satisfied.
Until now, the part-time job has continued, although it has changed from four hours a week to four hours a month, but compared to other manual tasks, this job is relatively easy.
Ben's second job was sawing trees, and this job was the most lucrative of Ben's part-time job, earning $5,000 a day in less than seven hours.
Ben said that the owner of the sawing company where he worked was a classmate's father, and as soon as he heard that he had been cut off, the classmate's father immediately agreed to let him go to work. The work of sawing trees is very dangerous, even if there is a lot of money, few people are willing to do it, which gives the inexperienced Ben a chance.
Ben said he was able to persevere without much injury, thanks to several Chinese masters who took him to work. "It is said that overseas, Chinese love to bully Chinese, but several masters who took me to saw trees are very kind. They taught me techniques for free, and they didn't dislike me for being stupid when I worked, and always reminded me to pay attention to safety. Sawing trees is physically demanding, but my heart is warm. I also managed to earn tuition within one year, which completely bailed out my discontinued career. ”
Grilling squid at Toronto's night markets is Ben's third job, and he has been working for a year since last summer.
Ben is already a master of grilling squid, and since there are at least two hundred skewers baked from his hands every day, the owner and diners are very satisfied with his craftsmanship. He said that this was all practiced when he often attended and held barbecue parties when he was not cut off.
The most satisfying thing about Ben is that the time only takes up weekends and does not affect his usual work of attending classes and sawing trees. Secondly, the income is high, at least 30,000 a month, in the hot summer vacation of the Toronto night market, it is no problem to earn 100,000 yuan.
Part.3
Sick to look down on, after the supply is cut off, insist on fitness every day
The body is the capital of self-help, and if you want to turn over, you have to strengthen yourself. This is very simple, because once you get sick, you have to spend money, you have to miss work. During the two years of the cut, Ben's biggest fear was illness.
He said that now whenever he goes to the subway, he wears a mask for fear of contracting the virus. Even if he had a cold break for a few days, he couldn't afford to delay. He is like a clockwork robot who, if he doesn't make money, he won't have food the next day.
This insecurity has always been with Ben, he feels anxious about this nervous mental state, but he can't control it at all, and the feeling of not having money in his pocket is an inexplicable panic, too uncomfortable.
When the supply was cut off, Ben finished paying his tuition and looked through his wallet, leaving less than 5,000 yuan. Just when he was struggling to make money, he fell ill, and it was a month to get sick.
Speaking of this experience, Ben shook his head: "Alas! I thought that with my charm, I would be able to attract the God of Wealth to knock on the door, but I didn't expect that it was such a plague as the new crown that was waiting for it. My classmates advised me not to endure it, and to take medicine when I should take it. My $5,000 was consumed almost overnight, and although I had insurance, I paid for my medicine in Canada at my own expense. Two years ago, there was no special medicine, as long as the Internet said that it could cure the disease, I would buy it, and there was no way to consider whether it was expensive or not, I had to consider whether I could survive. This trip fell ill, spent tens of thousands of yuan, and the credit card was maxed out, only to retrieve my little life. ”
Cherishing life and taking care of your body is Ben's motto now.
First of all, he changed all his bad habits, Ben would stay up late, he often drank, smoked, and rushed homework. Now I don't dare to stay up, go home from work and go to sleep, even if I want to relieve my fatigue, that is, take a hot bath.
He also did not touch cigarettes and alcohol, and his classmates joked about his supply crisis and changed his gender. Ben sounded uncomfortable, but his mouth was still hard, and he said that if being transgender would make him rich, he would be too happy.
The second is to develop good habits such as exercise. Every morning after waking up, Ben would jog for half an hour. Daily diet refuses to be spicy and greasy, ensure healthy meals, and do not eat fast food.
"I take care of my body more than before I broke off, and my mother said that I was like an old man, and I lived too well." Ben says he doesn't enjoy such a dull life, but in order to make money, he has to live like this.
In summer, stand in front of a barbecue stall for 12 hours against the scorching sun, grilling squid one by one; In spring and autumn, you have to walk the streets to see trees; Every week, he also makes guest appearances as mannequins, and spends half a day naked in the studio.
These jobs are quite open-minded, in addition to being dangerous, they are also physically demanding. Ben described his body as like a car, which had to be refueled and maintained regularly in order to drive safely every day.
Part.4
Stay in Canada after graduation to pay off debts, all year round
In the Cantonese dialect, there is the word "pickled", which means that it takes hard work to exchange for food. This phrase is the mantra of Master Chen with Ben sawing trees, and he means that he and Ben are both hard people who work hard to make money.
In the past two years, Ben's three jobs have earned him almost 1 million. Compared to the many international students who drop out of school, Ben is already too successful.
However, for Ben, this is all based on open-mindedness, which also shows that choosing to sell coolies in Canada is the right choice. But as a multi-university finance student, my family said it was a shame for Ben to do manual work. Approaching graduation, Ben began to think about his future after graduation.
Ben said he faced unemployment when he returned home. Although the unemployment rate of domestic college students is as high as 20%, high-caliber students like Ben can definitely find a job.
When it comes to looking for a job in China, he smiles. "It's certainly not hard to find a job, I can take over a travel company where my dad owes millions in foreign debt, and I can help my mom's restaurant deliver food," he said. But I can't guarantee that I can help them make money, these two industries have not even been able to sustain the decades of old rivers and lakes like my parents, let alone dare to do it. I also tried to submit a resume, but there was no reply for finance-related jobs. ”
Stay, first Ben can get a three-year Canadian work visa as soon as he graduates. Although there is no mandatory diploma requirement to find a job in Canada, Ben believes that how much education is still recognized, and he has already obtained a position as a financial program supervisor in a bank recruitment, with an annual salary of 300,000.
He is actively participating in the qualification examination of garden technology, and when the qualification certificate is obtained, it will be legal to go sawing trees in the future. As for the work of roasting squid, he believes that as long as time can be taken care of, this money must be earned.
When his classmates graduated, they were talking about the future and ideals, and Ben said that he was no longer qualified, he could only talk about money.
Stay in Canada because you can make more money. He has calculated an account, he works in the bank on weekdays, goes to sawing trees on weekends, he can achieve an annual income of 1 million, in addition to his living expenses of 500,000, he can send 500,000 yuan to his family every year to pay off debts.
Staying in Canada, he felt that he was not an international student at all, but a person who ran overseas to pan for gold under the weight of his family's finances, and making money was the only goal of living. Everyone will complain about such a life, but people without money can only accept reality.
After two years of suffering, Ben concluded that although he was directly cut off, his friends gave him the support to rub and introduced him to work, which made him very grateful.
He was also fortunate to study in Toronto, a city with a large number of Chinese, where migrant workers from all over the country, that is, blue-collar workers, brought Ben a lot of technical training to survive hardships, as well as spiritual companionship to survive.
As for the future, Ben doesn't have many illusions. He had to finish paying off his father's debts first, and then talk about anything else.