When I was a kid, I had to live for many years in tiny villages where sheep were more frequent on the roads than actual cars. But many people told me “you will go far.” They kept saying there were greater things waiting for me out there in the world.

When I decided to leave school for a year in search of my true path, my family never lost their faith in me. They always let me know that I was special, that I was destined for something great, and that I had such a promising future.

The world, however, apparently had its own plans. The economic crisis left a whole generation of young people in Spain with very little jobs and very few options for their future.

Sometimes, life plays tricks on you. It gives you a taste of the good times and it fools you into thinking that these happy times will last forever.

The summer before I finished my degree in Journalism, I met Sam—the person who turned my life around. I was a Spanish girl on an internship in Exeter, England for three months. He was a Russian boy living in Germany as a student. We met by chance on an online community that I joined to practice my English. We eventually felt that we were each other’s soul mates. We decided to meet in person so we both flew to Paris where we spent our first weekend together. It was the beginning of a relationship that soon turned into a marriage.

My summer in England turned me into a whole new person. Before that, I had never flown on a plane, I had never gotten to know about other cultures, and I had never thought seriously about my future. But when I came back home at the end of September 2007, I decided that after I finished my degree, I would go to Germany to live with Sam. There were many reasons for that. First, I wanted to be with the person I loved, but I also realized that there was nothing waiting for me in Spain after college. Sure, I was busy with my university life, my friends, and my youth. But there was only one more year left in college and that happy bubble would soon burst. I would have to face the fact that hunting for jobs in my homeland would be a great challenge.

While attending my last year in college, I started to work part-time in a supermarket every morning from 6 to 10 A.M., going to class right after that and working on my school projects late into the night. Never before in my life had I been so tired, but never had I been so proud of myself either. My family saw that and soon came to terms with the fact that I was intent on leaving. I managed to successfully graduate from college and that was how the first phase of my life ended. It was time to face reality.

I left Spain in the summer of 2008 with tears and uncertainty, but I arrived in Germany with hope and a letter of confirmation for my very first German language course. After learning English, French, and Italian, I thought German wouldn’t be so tough – but I soon realized I was sorely mistaken. I realized that learning a language for survival was a lot more difficult compared to learning it for fun. I was not as gifted as I thought.

By Christmas time of that first year, money had already run out and I was feeling more and more powerless. I was unemployed, still struggling with the German language, and bored at home most of the time. I had sent out dozens of job applications, but I heard nothing from employers. I flew back to Spain to celebrate the holidays with my family, secretly unsure if I should go back. But three days before my return flight, I received great news. I was accepted for a paid internship as a journalist in the Spanish department of a major German journalistic corporation. It was a full time job so I left my German language courses and started going every day to the office. It was the most gratifying experience ever. I finally learned what it was like to work as a professional journalist. I got to produce radio programs, I wrote lots of articles and even special features. The internship was initially one month long, but I managed to extend it to three.

After that, however, the bad times came back. There were no jobs in the corporation I worked for as an intern, so I just went back to my old life, learning German and staying home most of the time. Sam had to work ten-hour shifts as a waiter to support us both, our parents often had to lend us money, and I felt guilty and useless. But the people at the German firm saved me once again. Every now and then, every time someone got sick or went on a holiday, they would take me in as a substitute. Thanks to that, I got to learn almost every kind of job in their office. I became one of their most versatile workers.

Now, I finally have regular work as a journalist in this firm—one of the most respected media companies in Germany and in the world. There are still some rough times and I’m still not very confident about my German-speaking skills, but I feel very blessed – especially when I take a look at my old friends from college. Most of them are still looking for good jobs.

Will this lucky streak of mine last long? No one knows. But if life has taught me one thing, that is to never stop trying, and that sometimes one has to step into the unknown to gain perspective. Hope is the fuel that helps us go forward.