Making a life-changing decision at 16 years old

Episode Description

Unlike most teenagers nowadays who are living their life freely, Felipe was someone who let himself experience the struggle of emigrating at the young age of 16.

After finishing high school, Felipe decided to leave his country to learn English in the US. He went back to Colombia six months later and started his college education, but then, a financial crisis happened, and he decided to take a chance and continue his education in the US.

Upon studying college, He was able to obtain scholarships but to sustain his personal and daily expenses, Felipe needed to work while studying.

Years passed, and Felipe finished his studies, and he faced a decision where he was struggling to either go back home or to stay in the US. When the company he worked for as an intern offered him a job, Felipe decided to go for it. It was a decision he made after contemplating the greater opportunities these two countries could offer. Meeting a woman who then became his wife played a crucial part in his decision to stay.

Looking back to where he is now as a successful engineer in New York, Felipe remains grateful for the support system his family has given though they were miles apart from each other.

Being a young man who took a huge jump and moved to another country in search of greater opportunities, it was definitely challenging for Felipe.

Nevertheless, the journey was worth it for him.

In the end, all that matters is what’s waiting for you at the end of the road which is totally worth it either for Felipe or to any emigrants who might be reading this. It is worth it so keep ongoing.


Get in touch with Felipe

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About

Episode Transcript

Daniel 0:03

Hi everyone, and welcome to episode number 15 of the Emigrant's Life Podcast, where we share stories of people who left their country to chase a better life. I'm Daniel De Biasi and my guest this week moved from Colombia to the United States to study, he left Bogota to learn English when he was only 16 just after high school. Because of the bad economy at that time in Colombia, he decided to continue studying and go to college in the US to have a better career. Fast forward 20 years he's now a successful civil engineer living in New York. In this episode, Felipe will share how he learn English and tips on how to be prepared when you move to a new country. Before we move to my conversation with Felipe, make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast, and will be great if you could give us a five star review. And now without further ado, please enjoy this episode with Felipe.

Hi, Felipe, thanks for being on the show.

Felipe 0:56

Thank you, Daniel. How are you?

Daniel 0:57

I'm very good. Thank you. You?

Felipe 1:00

Good, good, pretty good.

Daniel 1:02

Awesome. So where where are you from?

Felipe 1:05

I'm originally from Bogota, Colombia. I was born and raised in in Bogota, Colombia.

Daniel 1:14

Okay. And where do you live now?

Felipe 1:17

I live - we I live in New York in the state of New York I live up about 60 miles north of New York City in a small town called Goshen, which is in a in Orange County its what we call the Hudson Valley. So it's a very unique area. It's you have the New York City close by but you're not in New York City. So it's, it's perfect.

Daniel 1:40

Like a more rural?

Felipe 1:42

Yeah, it is. It's Yeah, you can call it that. It's very a lot of farmland, loadspace and, you know, quiet neighborhood. So it's, I don't think it's suburbs its rural. So it's that's the right definition. So yeah,

Daniel 1:59

Okay. And how long have you been in the country in the US?

Felipe 2:04

Oh, boy. Ah, so I first came when I was 16. That was 1998. I came after high school, I came to learn English. My parents simply told me and just go and learn some English before you start college. So I came for six months, went back to Colombia, spent a year there, started college there, but then there was a during that time like late 90s, there was a big financial crisis in, in Colombia and there was, you know, a little bit of tough times. So my parents pretty much said, well, you're in the middle of the tree. Your sister is finishing high school. Your brother is about to finish college, but we have the money for the next semester. But we've been won't really be able to pay much more than that. So we can give you that money you can go and try to figure something out in somewhere else we will support anything you do, any decisions you make. And that's how I said well let me let me try this again. And so I I came back a year later after that I just decided to stay I applied for college and got some scholarships, I got some some some help and and was able to, to pay my tuition like that. With a little bit of help my parents who wasn't as much as if I was paying there so so they were able to help me out a little bit and, and went to went to college and became a civil engineer. So that was 99. So about 20 years, 21 years. I've been here.

Daniel 3:51

Oh, that's awesome. So how easy was to get from Columbia to US and into college?

Felipe 3:57

Ah, I think you in my in my situation, I think it was relatively easy. Because I first - I mean, of course, I came with a student visa. And what I did is I first applied for a student visa to learn English, which is a lot easier than applying for a student visa if you are going to start a degree. And basically it's not that that was the way I did it, but it's that's how I decided to do it because I knew I had to first get my English better so I could actually get into into engineering school. I needed to pass my TOEFL, I needed to take my exams and all that so I knew my English wasn't that great at the time. So I was like, alright, I'd better, better get my English better. Then after after that, after I felt comfortable, I took my TOEFL. I was able to get a good score. I said, All right, let me now apply for schools and then I pass. They accepted me so I was able to transfer the visa at that point it just you know, you transfer the visa from school to school, but it's a lot easier at that point. So it wasn't that difficult. I mean at the since at the end of the day its just a matter of making sure that you have all your paperwork in order and in my in my case I did have a couple scholarships that helped me back that financial aspect of coming to school because of course you're paying out of state tuition which is quite a bit you know, in comparison so I was able to do that and got myself a couple of jobs on campus because as a as a as a student in a student visa, you can work elsewhere. So I got a couple jobs on campus, I worked at dorms, I worked at helping the students at the dorms and and settling domain and cleaning the dorms after everybody was gone and doing all sorts of things, and that's how I paid my leaving. So in exchange for working on dorms, I will get my rent. So, so that kind of that's that's kind of how it worked out.

Daniel 6:11

Okay, and you say you got a couple of scholarship? That's because you were like a good student. How did you get scholarships?

Felipe 6:18

At the time? I don't call wouldn't say because I was a good student because it was I think it was I just looked out that I had someone kind of gave me a tip on on a couple of scholarships for minorities. So for Hispanics, in my case, the VA require typically scholarships require citizenship or resident status. But these scholarships in particular do not require any, any of that. They were there were open pretty much for anyone, and they were geared towards Hispanics. So so that's how it worked out. Nowadays, this is 20 years ago. Nowadays the opportunities are a little bit better. Scholarships, I was talking to somebody and they will tell me that they don't require as much - route they don't have as many requirements when it comes to citizenship and that kind of stuff because they there is a lot more nonprofits that are helping immigrants now in that in that sense.

Daniel 7:25

Okay, I did I didn't know that. I was actually thought it was harder for people from aboard to to get into schools in the US.

Felipe 7:33

It is. It is and it isn't. I think it is matter of making sure that you, you do your homework on how to how to how to get to school because yeah, you can make your life a lot harder if you don't do homework. But in in a way, it's for me, it was relatively easy, and I was able to successfully go through my four years of college.

Daniel 8:01

Awesome. And and when you graduated was your plan to stay in the US always tried to stay in the US or you're planning to move back to Colombia?

Felipe 8:08

Yeah. When when I graduated, it was always weird because I was like, alright, I have after you graduate from school from from with your bachelor's degree, they give you like a work permit for a year or at the time, I don't know if it has changedn now, it's been a while, but they gave you a work permit at the time for a year. So what I had is I was able to have an internship on my senior year, which is allowed by immigration. So I worked at a company at an engineering company and then the engineering company said, well, if you want to continue working with us, feel free we will continue paying you and you continue to work and I was like, great. So I applied for my permit. I got my permit, I continue working. And then during that time, it was like, alright, I have two options: I can go back to Colombia, and not really do anything else I just find a job there. But at the time I had arraignment, my now wife, so I had a girlfriend at the time. And my company, and I asked my company, what are the possibilities for visa sponsorship? They kind of knew going in that I was going to go for that. And they accepted that offer for me. And they say, yeah, we will sponsor you. This is, you know, we're talking 2004, 2005. It was, it was not that difficult. I mean, 9/11 happened already, but it was still relatively easy to get a work permit, a work visa. So I applied for the work visa through the company, they sponsor me and I stayed and then a few years later, I got married. So my plan was, I didn't really have a plan at the time. It was you know I was I will take kind of like year by year kind of see how much I can get you know see one thing that I knew from the get go is that I will never become an illegal immigrant so I knew that so it was always trying to find a way to stay and try to get my visas and my work permits or whatever I needed to get but yeah after a year working and not really experiencing what was that professional life in Colombia, I thought it will be a little bit difficult for me to go back. Because I will have to start from scratch yeah, I can I can take my degree, but in a lot of ways, I will have to create my own network of professional and you know, get all that going and I had to reestablish that here. Through school, I had a professional connections I had it real bad so it was I thought it will be difficult so that's why I said go all the way and just try to stay in and figure it out. And, of course, finding my wife made a lot made it a lot easier. Because at that point yeah, you're not going back.

Daniel 11:15

Is she like an American or she's an immigrant as well?

Felipe 11:18

She is first generation immigrant. So she - her parents came 45 years ago from Colombia, and she was born here. So, so she's Colombian American, in a way.

Daniel 11:36

Okay, yeah. Um, you said you went - so the first school or the first time you went to the US was to learn the language. First of all, how long did it take you to learn and master the language and the thing that helped you the most to learn the language?

Felipe 11:52

Um, it took me a year to be comfortable with the way that I will say I can have a conversation I can, I'm not feeling intimidated, because that's probably the biggest thing is like, you know, being intimidated when you don't really know the language and and your brain doesn't work that way. One thing that helped me a lot was the house where I lived. They had a four year old at the time, and she will watch Disney movies all day long. So, that's what I did when I was not in school, I will just watch Disney movies with her. So and her being a four year old and it was actually a house of Colombian friends. They spoke Spanish, but the little girl they didn't really talk a lot of Spanish to her. So at three years old, four years old, she was just speaking English and I kind of had to reply to her and then before I knew it, like before, because I guess it was her I didn't have that fear of messing up. So I lost that fear and cause I know that - you know that that I guess shyness of making mistakes or anything like that because I knew she wasn't gonna laugh at me. So, so it kind of worked out at the end and then as I got into college and I had jobs it just definitely helped because at that point its like, alright, you just have to work on it or you won't be able to do anything. So that kind of helped. Definitely having a job and and being just forced to do it. That helped.

Daniel 13:39

Yeah, about - speaking about the cartoons it's not the first person then say is that actually watching cartoons and because when you learn language its pretty much the same level of four years old. The same level on English the same way they learn the language its pretty much the same way we could learn the language too. So it's not the first person that tells me that watching cartoons Disney cartoons is actually helping learning the language.

Felipe 14:02

Yep, that's that's pretty much it. Yeah, it's pretty funny. But yeah, it's I, I got to a point where I'll know The Lion King pretty well.

Daniel 14:14

But I guess when you get into work, you can't use the same kind of terminology, the same kind of English imagine not to learn the technical words. Its kind of like a completely different language.

Felipe 14:24

Yes. And that's one of the things that I realized, like you asked me earlier about going back to Colombia. I realize I worked in Puerto Rico a few years ago. And while I mean, they speak Spanish, and while I realized that, yeah, I could get my point across. There were so many technical terms that I only knew in English, because that's how I learned it. That's how I learned it in school. And and when I talked to friends in Colombia and stuff like that about like technical stuff or things like that, there are things that I just don't know. Because I don't, I didn't learn it that way. So it's interesting because you're right, it doesn't, you, you once you learn certain terms and certain way of like the working English that I call is very difficult to to to me it's very difficult to go back to Spanish at that point. So, so that was one of the things that I realized only yeah, if I try to go back now it's going to be starting from scratch because I have to learn a lot of new new terms.

Daniel 15:31

Yeah. You're right. And that's funny because you can even on some on site when I work I can hear people on a different language they communicate and different language could be Spanish, could be I don't know any other language. But you can hear some terminology they talk to each other in their language, but some words are in English because even for the same reason they probably don't know the same word in their language its just because as you said, we learn in English and that's the only way we know.

Felipe 15:56

Yep, exactly.

Daniel 15:58

Do you have any regrets about leaving Colombia?

Felipe 16:01

No, really? I mean, of course, I think the one of the regret I mean regrets as, as of me leaving the country no. Regrets about missing things of my family, yes. Because I am the middle child of three and my parents live in Colombia, my brother and sister live are still there. They - my brother got his MBA here but he went back a year, a year after his work permit expired. No actually, he got his work visa, and then he moved back. But uh, I that's how I my only regret is me - missing family events, family things. That's probably the only thing that I regret. And I try to go back at least once a year. We try to go back and at least spend a week with them and and try to make the best out of those times. Still, you miss those things. But other than that, like, leaving the country as a whole? Not necessarily. I mean, I left as as a 16 year old, 17 year old so it's not like you have established life or or or something established for you to say all right, yeah, regret leaving all that behind. You're just starting life at 16. So, so yeah, I don't have those regrets.

Daniel 17:29

What was the biggest upside about immigrating?

Felipe 17:32

I think in general, it's really the opportunity. That's kind of one of the reasons you know, when I went for that year that I went in between after high school I went back for a year. I just when I was in college, they're going for a civil engineering too. I just did not see the opportunity. It was it was a tough time for the country at the same time, it was like a big financial crisis going on and real state crisis and pretty much you name it. And at the time, I just didn't really see the opportunity that what am I going to do three, five years from now, have a job and maybe make you know a certain amount of money but really did not see that opportunity that I saw when, when I was here. And when I said alright, if I can work towards these, I can get that and then I, I will move to that direction. And I think that's like the biggest, biggest upside is just bad opportunity and, and in a way, I think I was very lucky to have good mentors to my career, that that helped me guide that that direction where I wanted to go in in my professional life and as well as having my wife by my side at that time, that really helped me.

Daniel 19:01

Okay, and do you think you would be able, if you if you didn't go to the US you think you you wouldn't be able to have the same kind of career in Colombia or no?

Felipe 19:11

Good question. I don't know. Ah, I probably would but probably would have been a little harder to get. Know that it hasn't been hard to get here and to get to where I'm at here, but I think it would have been a lot more difficult today.

Daniel 19:32

Because there's like a less demand of your job?

Felipe 19:36

Um, simply the lack of opportunity for it.

Daniel 19:40

Okay.

Felipe 19:41

I just I just don't don't don't see that there is or at the time, I didn't see there was that. Now probably its a little bit different. My brother actually tells me all the time that I should just go back and I will do so well with my knowledge, my career, my experience, but it's something that I'm not even willing to entertain now. But it's different times it's 20 years later and and its different times. I do have a career, I'm experienced establish, I have a resume that I can I can show and validates what I've done, but not necessarily if I was you know 2022 graduating from college thinking alright, this is what I'm going to do probably I would have had a hard time finding a job to begin with. Because that's just the reality back then. And even nowadays, the unemployment is pretty high to some extent. So recent grads have a hard time finding jobs and and getting their careers going.

Daniel 20:48

Because even the other thing is because you have a career in the US, would be easier from the US moving to a country like Colombia or even Europe if you work in the US. But it would be much harder from from Colombia, if you had a career in Colombia you have experience in Colombia moved to the US, it's not a good way to say but it's kind of as less seen, like a less professional because it's not a good experience.

Felipe 21:14

Yeah.

Daniel 21:15

So even working in this kind of country like a US, Europe or I don't know what other country can they can be they probably depending on the sector, you're in your field. But that means a lot in your career if you want to grow in your career, maybe working in this kind of country will be helpful to actually find a better job if you want to move back to your country.

Felipe 21:36

Yeah, definitely. And you're right, you're exactly right. That's what I've seen a lot is people eventually that emigrate, like I did. And they kind of just get to a point where they said, all right, I think I've worked out here and I think it's time to go back and give back to my country. That's more or less what my brother did and he worked five years and when he moved back he was able to open up his own company and be very successful at it. But can you have that experience from here versus as you're starting from from there, it's difficult to do it.

Daniel 22:12

Yeah I know, exactly. And there was like a one particular thing that was kind of like a more challenging in your experience in the US?

Felipe 22:21

Oh, I think in a way, it was like at the beginning, trying to figure out things. Well I'd gotten lucky, as I started my professional career, to have the right mentors in that way, I think at the beginning was very, the biggest challenge was, you know, you were here alone in a new country barely speaking the language. I was not in in New York at the time. I was down in Florida, because that's where I I started college, but it was it was still difficult it was it was just kind of like finding that sometimes that motivation to keep going, you know its, you asked me about regrets is it wasn't a regret it was more of a questioning of my sanity of did I do the right thing? You know, did I did I jump too early on doing these things?

No, exactly I mean, you were 16 when you when you moved to the US. That's crazy.

Yeah

Daniel 24:45

I mean, I was 16 I probably didn't even know how to fold a T shirt.

Felipe 24:58

Well, yeah, I had to learn how to look do laundry I had to start from there.

Daniel 25:03

Yeah, no exactly. I mean, it's 16 even, did you get help from anybody in the US? Like, even just to figure out what you have to do, where to go to school or around immigration, everything?

Felipe 25:15

I came to my family, my parents had a couple friends that - a family that I came to live with, and they helped me they gave me the, you know, they gave me a hand and I'm very thankful for that. But I only spent with them maybe a year. And then I decided to that's when I decided to move down to Florida because I wanted - I got tired of the cold weather in New Jersey and and I wanted something different and I picked South Florida for that. So and then at that point, I was like you said I was alone. I was like, alright, never been to this place. What do I do and it was just figuring out on my own and I quickly found who were the international students in the on campus. Because it always happens that we gravitated to each other. So I ended up becoming good friends with a guy from Spain and a guy from Turkey. The guy from Turkey had a car so we were able to get to places with him. You know how it is it is it was just a matter of just surviving at that point and making sure that that that you were getting your your basic needs done and and fulfilled but it was it was it was pretty interesting. It was there was some learning experience and and as I've been here, there's a lot of people asked me, how, how do you do this? How do you do that? And what I tell them and what I my best advice to people is, this is what you should not do. Don't do what I did. You know, if you're going to come try to have this, try to have that I'm not saying come with, you know, x thousands of dollars so that you have a perfect life. But don't come under with the, with the understanding that you're going to find everything. And this is like just so easy to find everything. No. If you don't have that you have to work pretty hard for it. And why? If you have the opportunity to make your life a little bit easier through the process, do that. You don't have to, you know, suffer or or work extra hard for that dream if you can have it a little bit easier in a way. So I tell people, this is what you should not do. Learn from what I did and don't do that. Because I have a lot of friends and family that always asked me Hey, I want to go I want to do this, I want to do that. And when I start telling them, what the process is and how things work and how things may not work for them based on how I know they behave, or are they where they were - or what their expectations are, things start shifting a little bit and they start analyzing their situation a little bit different and then what ends up happening is that if they come they experience a lot better. Because unless they had that eye opener at one point, so that's what I try to do sometimes.

Daniel 28:28

No, you're totally right even for me, my first experience in New Zealand I went there with no English at all. And I managed to get a visa to have like a pretty much renewal visa being extended for another two years within six months. So when I decided to move to Canada I thought if I could get a visa in New Zealand within six months with no English nothing. How hard could it be when I went to Canada, it will be much easier. I was wrong that didn't matter. It didn't matter my English level. The immigration process was completely different. The economy and how the people who work here, it was completely different. The situation was completely different. I came here unprepared, I thought, how hard could it be? Just go there and figure things out like I did in New Zealand would be much easier and it wasn't so you're right. Every country is different. Every country's got different rules. And it's better be prepared and be than come in here and and find himself like overwhelmed with all the regulation and not having enough time to to extend your visa and manage to stay.

Felipe 29:30

Yeah, and I think in a way it's knowing what you are expecting, but at the same time knowing what are your limits. Because more often than not, when you when you try to get a new life and try to because you know coming to a different countries, it's just you're getting a new life. You're forgetting everything that you had done in wherever you're from and coming here or coming to whatever country you go to. I think it's a new life. So it's knowing what are your limits. Like you said, I didn't know how to do laundry. You know, its, you know, I ran out of clean clothes on like, oh, what do I do now, you know, it's knowing that you have to learn to do things on your own that you probably haven't done in your entire life. Or even if you don't come to school and you come to immigrate just as, as, as an escape or whatever your case be, from, from any any situation that you're in. It's trying to be open that when you come to a different country, you can forget anything that you did before. And you're starting from the bottom up and you have to be ready for that. Because sometimes you won't be able to work in your whatever you went to school back home. Like you said, it's a little difficult to work in something when you come to these countries. But but it's like, it's just a matter of knowing that these may be temporary. That its kind of like your way, like I call it paying your dues for for, for making that decision for taking that leap. And at the same time having a goal in mind, because more often than not you see immigrants that come to the country and they have their visas or whatever they have. And they just get into a vicious circle of circle working, working, working but forgetting about that goal, that dream that they had is be it at the end of the at the end of next years I want to be able to work in the field that I went to school for or what I was doing or things like that. You just get into that vicious circle of just working and trying to survive that you forget about your goals. So having that those goals is definitely important and not forgetting about them. To me, that's, that's super important for for, for for anyone that is trying to immigrate or to, to to set up a goal of of leaving where they are, is always have a goal. Because otherwise you're you're just gonna work and work to survive and and not really be happy at the end of the day I think. I wouldn't be happy if I was just working to survive.

Daniel 32:35

No, you're absolutely right. And another thing in addition to what you said about knowing your limits, some people are more luckier than others. What I mean by that is, I was pretty lucky that I have skills as an electrician, I was actually I was an electrician and I had experience in telecommunication, so for me, it was much easier to find a job and get a sponsor. So knowing your limits, so if you trying to immigrate and you don't have any work experience and you always been like a bartender, you need to know that will be much harder to get a sponsor, because what it means to get a sponsor means that the company that is sponsoring you needs to prove to the immigration that is hiring you, immigrant, because there's nobody else in the country that can do your job. So of course, if you are highly trained, will be easier for them to prove that needs you, instead of getting because if they can prove that there's nobody else that can do the job that you can do. But if you're a bartender or any, any other this job, it's much harder for them to prove that they take you because you're much better. It's so much harder. So that's one thing to keep in mind when you're trying to immigrate.

Felipe 33:46

Definitely yeah, that's very true. It's and that's the same process for when you when you are trying to get your work visa after school and it's you're competing for a set number of visas a year. I don't know what it is right now, but I know when when I was doing mine it was like some number like 60,000 visas per year. And you had - they opened up the next day, I forgot what it was and then by two days later, you got the notification either you made it or you did not. And it was because they will just exhaust the visas in in a couple days. So, it is it is knowing that you know, knowing that you may not get it on the first trial, you may have to go to the second trial and have been prepared for those because it takes time. It's not sometimes it's not as like you said some people get really lucky and they get it on the first trial and you're good to go but some others are not so lucky and they have to figure other ways to come up with with their plans to be able to stay and be able to be legally in the country.

Daniel 35:08

And you said and to get this visa is like a just method of quick you applying for the visa or depends on like your score and your grades?

Felipe 35:18

Ah that one is how quick you apply.

Daniel 35:22

Oh really?

Felipe 35:22

How quick, how quick the attorneys on the company are. And of course how quick the attorneys are. how big the companies and how much they're paying them. So because it is not cheap. A sponsorship is not is not something that is cheap and and nowadays they're rare to come by. But at the same time they yeah, your grades or that thing doesn't come into play nowadays. It is mainly the attorneys putting in for the visa application and luck. Hopefully, you know, immigration gets your application into one of those packages and they get it.

Daniel 36:06

And speaking of luck, do you feel lucky to be an immigrant?

Felipe 36:11

Definitely. I I do think so. Because I've been able to, to really have a good experience. Yes, there have been tough moments, there have been moments that I'm like, What am I doing? Of course, those were probably a few years back. But the good things that I've been able to do here, and the satisfaction that I've had here from meeting my wife and from doing other the things that I know I wouldn't have been able to do in a country or even professionally, they overcome anything that negative that happen or any any sour times that I might have had at the beginning. So yeah, I do consider myself very lucky to be able to take this opportunity and have made the best out of it. Because I think I've seen any any experience any journeys, you you tell your story depending on how good or bad you know, you did at it. And I think my experience has been relatively positive. I've had many good times both personal and professional. So for me it has been a good I don't have any, any any bad stories to tell. For me any any anything that probably you can consider bad to me has been more of a learning experience. You know, any any job that you had any any bad job experience that you had, or any other in school or any anything that you might have had, to me its like, yeah I know I won't do that again. Or I just learned from them, you know? But uh, but yeah, to me it's been it's been very good and I really don't have any any regrets, or, or anything like that.

Daniel 38:18

That's great. And if you could have like a time machine that could take you back in time, what would you tell to your young self?

Felipe 38:26

Wow. What would I tell my young self? Ah, I don't know. I think that's one thing that I really haven't thought about that. But now that you mentioned it is more like maybe liv a little bit more. When when I was in school, I was so much concentrated on getting good grades and trying to not fail any classes and because I knew another one I was I had scholarships and number two if I fail a class, my parents couldn't pay for it, I had to pay for it. So it was like, alright, if I party too much and I failed this class, that means I have to work double so I can pay that class. So to me, it's more like maybe finding that balance a little bit more and not simply just - sometimes I do feel like I've missed, I missed out a little bit on those college years. I mean, I made up for it later on. But, uh, but it's you know, looking back and I think that's the only thing that I would have told myself is like, leave a little bit more, you know, don't be so rigid about those things, and enjoy a little bit more. Enjoy. Enjoy your moment. Enjoy your life a little bit more and you'll be okay.

Daniel 39:48

Yeah, that's a really hard thing to do, though. Because if something goes wrong if you fail, that's, the price to pay is really high.

Felipe 39:56

It is. Yeah, it's at the time. That's That's why I didn't do it too much.

Daniel 40:02

Yeah, no, I get it. I totally get it.

Felipe 40:05

Not to say, doesn't mean that I didn't party but I did, but I was. My roommate I always joke with them because they were they were all business majors. And I was like, you guys don't study I mean you guys can party day in day out and still go get good grades. If I party day in day out I'm gonna fail. So So I always joke with them and we're still good friends and they still party day in day out but but they it's different different mindset, I guess. But uh, that was was pretty much my mindset at the time. I just wanted to get through school and in one try, I didn't want to repeat any classes or anything like that.

Daniel 40:46

Yeah. Fair enough. Awesome! Was a pleasure having you here on the show and what if people wants to get in touch with you, is there any way they can contact you?

Felipe 40:56

Sure. My Instagram is pipeline81, just like you hear it pipeline 81. That's probably the easiest way to get in touch with me yeah, through Instagram.

Daniel 41:10

Awesome. I will put your link in the show notes for people that if they want to reach out to you. Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show and taking time to do this interview.

Felipe 41:20

Alright. Thank you, Daniel for having me.

Daniel 41:22

No worries. Okay, thanks. Bye.

Felipe 41:24

Bye.

Daniel 41:26

Thank you so much for tuning in this week. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and maybe found some useful information. You can find the show notes with all the things and the links we discussed in this episode on our website, emigrantslife.com/episode15. Do you want to be on the show? You can visit emigrantslife.com/yourstory. Also starting from last week, every weekend we share a little story about famous immigrants on our social media. So make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks again for listening. Talk to you in the next one. Ciao!