By Sofia Bonato
And so my journey began, on the first of March,
carnival holiday, returning from Tandil.
A 5 minute audio confirming a dream.
A dream for him, not for me. But still, I wanted to share. Together.
The weeks passed, the anxiety grew. And we still had no news of the departure.
On Monday, March 21, it was confirmed, married we had to go. Crying, laughter and emotions.
Four days passed and we had the civil date. May 27th would be.
Hello everyone, my name is Sofi, I am Argentine and I want to tell you the story of how I ended up living in Switzerland with my husband.
Imagen de autoría de Sofia Bonato. Reservados todos los derechos.
Before migrating, I would have liked to read, listen to or talk to someone who had already experienced a migration process. At that moment many things came to mind, fears, nerves, doubts. But the truth is that I didn't imagine everything that awaited me. There is no single way to prepare to migrate, each immigration process is unique and different. Therefore, I want to tell you about my personal experience and what I learned throughout my migration.
I always liked to write but never dared to write. Little by little, I am leaving my comfort zone, to discover who I truly am, while I tell you my story.
We are all always looking for the perfect time to do things, but does that time really exist?
When the idea of leaving arose, or rather, when it arose to my husband (at that time boyfriend) I felt like my world was collapsing… I thought “Me in another country?” At first the ideas were vague and there was nothing concrete, but for him it had always been his work goal. More than once this caused problems in our relationship, because I wasn't sure I wanted to leave the country and he did, in fact, he had always been very clear, as clear as I was that I wasn't going to leave Argentina.
Image authored by Sofia Bonato. All rights reserved.
The job offer finally arrived and we had to make a decision. I still remember the exact moment when his determined gaze locked onto mine, all doubtful. They are those small moments in your life that you have to close your eyes, trust and let yourself go. We had already had more than a thousand talks and each one of them led us to the same conclusion, we knew it was going to be a challenge, but what better than doing it in pairs.
We didn't think everything would start happening so quickly, suddenly it was like knocking over a domino, once you knock one over, they all start to fall. Without realizing it I was living in total denial, making plans every day, taking care of being busy so as not to think. Everything began to happen at x2 speed. Moving, goodbyes, marriage. A cocktail of the best emotions.
Image authored by Fiorella Chagnier. All rights reserved.
With the idea of a farewell, we created a wedding.
It took us to gather 130 people, none of them were missing that June 4th.
We were saying goodbye to Argentina. We toured the Falls and the north.
While uncertainty abounded in our minds.
On July 21 we said goodbye. With kisses and hugs in Ezeiza.
And crying I left, but hand in hand together we walked.
Image authored by Sofia Bonato. All rights reserved.
2022 was undoubtedly the year of goodbye. One of the most contradictory years of my life. A year full of emotions. A year of a lot of happiness and a lot of pain. Those are the years that mark you. A 2022 full of goodbyes, some forever and others for a while, which also hurt a lot.
Without a doubt, that goodbye is a metamorphosis: that mourning makes you reborn, leaving your past life to begin a new stage.
All images authored by Sofia Bonato. All rights reserved.