Life, Live and Moments
Life, live and moments is an essay reflecting on me and my life in relation to my past; where I grew up living, the experiences I have had to go through, the moments that I didn’t see, that passed by, and the moments that changed my life and my future. Having lived in Germany as a teenager provided me with the immense opportunity to learn a lot about all the aspects of life in this beautiful country. Unfortunately, there comes a time in one’s life when you have to change and move on in life. I had to make tough decisions that shaped my life; I moved on to Australia to pursue my career as a mechanic study on the side until I became an automobile lecturer due in part to finances, my passion to continuously pursue knowledge and other reasons.
From my experience of life in Germany, I can assure you it is quite a great opportunity that everybody should taste. The country presents vast cultural practices and a variety of ways to enjoy leisure throughout the year. Though it is fun to live in Germany for most of the week, not all days are the same. For instance, Saturdays are meant for gardening-mostly plucking off weeds from the cracks on the sidewalks in front of houses while Sunday is neither a day to do your vacuuming nor is it welcome to play loud music in the afternoon between noon and three. Different neighborhoods gave different experiences of life in Germany. The country boasts of a greater degree of cleanliness and efficiency than most countries in the world, with the smaller towns being stricter on the rules and regulations that govern sanitation than the case in larger cities. Life in Germany is generally enjoyable save for the countries bureaucracy.
Nostalgia overwhelms me whenever I talk of my childhood days. Guten tag! This is the phrase with which I used to say hello to people. All school going children attend the same classes up until fifth grade where you are sorted out according to the grades you scored in the tests administered. It is fascinating that the children who go to school decide how their universities are run. I finally attained my degree; “fachorberschulreife”, which is an equivalent of year twelve in the Australian academic calendar. My school day schedule started usually started in the early morning to about noon. Only five percent of the students went to private schools while about twenty five percent attended universities. I enjoyed the countries delicious and tasty meals with my favorite being frankfurters which are a kind of sausages in Germany. Vegetables were eaten almost daily with bread being present in almost every meal topped and flavored with seeds. I also enjoyed cabbage pickled with vinegar which I usually called sauerkraut.
I was always an obedient boy to all my elders and enjoyed reading and exploring new environments. I always accompanied my parents whenever they went when I was young drawing from them valuable advice and guidance. As a teenager, it did not occur to me that I could pursue my academic ambitions and attain a university degree. My immediate focus was to gain enough skill, knowledge and experience to emulate my father as a car mechanic so that I could take care of the family automotive business. Though my parents were there for me, they knew nothing about career pathways and so I had nobody to advice and guide me in choosing a career for my life. I opted to train to be a mechanic because of a passion for it as well as the prospect of getting some money out of it. I remember the advice of my parents to always work hard so that I would be able to sustain my family and that education was the greatest inheritance I would get from them.
It was a great honor to get the opportunity to do four year apprenticeship in a Mercedes Benz company after completing high school. This is one of the largest companies that make luxurious vehicles. Their policy of training apprentices on both mechanical and trading skills in their company greatly equipped me for the life that I was later to live. They value the fact that an apprentice should become part of their company during his/her apprenticeship so as to market them out there, a venture that has the effect of boosting their image among the people. It is while here that I developed valuable public relation skills since I was able to interact with customers. In Germany, for one to find a job without apprenticeship is more or less unattainable since it is part of Germany’s dual education policy system where an apprentice spends about fifty percent to seventy percent of his time in companies and the rest is spent in formal education which forms an important part of the peoples’ working life. Having had such a golden opportunity to work in such a company, I did applause myself. I realized that customers would always want to know exactly what you were doing to their expensive cars and I needed to explain to them using familiar terms, I learned how to respond to the diverse customers’ queries in actual facts and not to overwhelm them with industrial or technical terms. In order to convince and make actual and huge sales of the expensive repairs to the clientele, I learnt that I had to explain to them in a way that they could easily understand me. Some of these experiences opened up my mind and I started looking at my future in a different way as this really intrigued me.
My four years of apprenticeship prepared me for master school whose exam was not only necessary for me to train or start my own business or workshop but also get me a license for training in my field of expertise. I also got a certificate to train the apprentices. Since I had been working as a fully qualified motor mechanic I did pass the master school in Germany which is an official Trades Corporation Center. I studied for another 2.5 years which included a full electronic part. In addition, I went for a further training and attained a vocational training, several traineeships and other completed courses.
I have had opportunities to work in several companies and in different companies in my adult life. These experiences have greatly diversified my knowledge as well as made me stand out in handling clients. For instance, I have had an opportunity to go South Africa but unfortunately I did not make it. Meeting a variety of people and having a wide range of education has led to my ability to improve my communication, leadership and interpersonal skills as I due to the opportunities I have had to work in different companies. Whenever I was free, I spent the time travelling across the world experiencing the diversified cultures of different people from different countries.
Meeting my wife was one of the many life-changing moments I have had to endure. Up to this time, I had been only concerned with my career and the many experiences that drove my life. I had not given family a place in it. I now had the opportunity to focus on my new family and I did not take long before we had a child. This literally changed everything in my life. It took us a year for our first child and eleven more months for our second. The responsibilities and the love that comes with a family really changed me and my aspirations for the future.
A development in my workplace in Germany led to my eventual move to Australia. My company was restructuring and laying off worker while more mechanics were needed in Australia. I took the opportunity and applied for a visa and within two years I was in Australia. As luck would have it, I got a job as a mechanic with Toyota in Mandurah. My wife, Conny, supported me throughout the idea and experience of relocating to Australia. This was greatly boosted by the fact that we love the nature and lifestyle in Australia.
Settling in to my new environment was not a much of a problem. I already had a fair command of the English language and so language barrier was not a problem to me since I had widely travelled in different countries where a lot of English training was involved, I also learned English as part of my education in school as well as when I had to work with computers. The working experience I had for two years as a mechanic came in handy and made me feel more confident to learn the Australian culture. I even started my own automotive workshop where I continued to upgrade my skills. In order to understand the bureaucracy of Australia and to have a high outcome from my employees I decided to undertake a certificate course in Training and assessment as well as open an outlet of automotive repair parts next to my workshop. As a result of long working hours and the nature of the work as a mechanic I developed some back problems which I led to my surgery. A reoccurrence of the problem forced me to abandon the mechanical job. I later decided to apply for a lecturer position to my success.
I am currently working at a Durack Institute of Technology at Geraldton, Western Australia as an automotive lecturer and I must admit that my skills and background have helped me to deliver competently. It has been challenging to teach students since I have to explain what I used to do practically into theory form. Scheming evaluation tools and work books was not easy for me and one has to evaluate the unit results. To improve my skills, I had to attend various workshops some of which I did on my own while others were available in my institution.
As I pursue my career, I have a family with two kids and maintaining a balance between work and family is not that easy. I have to balance my time and attention to my work, my family and myself. This is increasingly becoming difficult. Doing a job as an automotive lecturer without qualifications has led to deliberations about my future aspirations and the potential benefits had I obtained tertiary education. This has led to my decision to further my education in order to obtain a university degree and hence clear my conscience of not getting it early as well as win myself promotions which come with more pay.
Leaving my home country to go to Australia to pursue my career was a defining moment in my life. I had to leave everything behind and concentrate on my career to earn a living. Losing some of my friends also touched me as they had really helped me in most of the decisions I had made especially in my youth stages. In my entire life, there have been some moments that come and go, some worth sharing, some have enriched my life and some have taught me to become who I am today. I have had to make choices in life that have had significant changes that have defined me as a family man and in my career. In every stage of life, everyone should utilize their skills and talents whenever the opportunity arises as a day will come when they will not be able to perform a task that they should have performed earlier. Being a parent has encouraged me to work hard and be a responsible individual who does anything positive for his children. No one should ever discourage you for your successes or what you know is right for you or that is what will bring your happiness. Challenges are there and you have to courageously face them for you to be where you want. The decisions one make at one stage of life do have an effect in some later stages and they are should not be a source of regret. Everyone’s life is precious and everyone has a purpose for living so one should never see as if he is not worth living. Life is a gift and we should live it to the fullest, Life is good.
