Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

S B Teja
S B Teja
Nov 3 · 2 min read

“Congratulations on your offer of employment…”

Earlier this summer, I got a call from the company- that I had attended an assessment centre for- and they notified me that I have been offered a place in their graduate programme. I was sobbing so much when calling my mom that she had to double check whether I actually got the job or not.

Knowing that I could live a life without having my eyes glued to Linkedin job search notifications or writing yet another a cover letter for another job application was truly liberating. Moreover, as an international student living in the UK, time was literally running out. It is either one lands a job which “sponsors” non-UK or non-EU people or leaves the UK on the date your student visa expires.

Having secured a job post-graduation, at that time life was good and I was content. With an internship and a graduate role lining up after finishing my masters, I could not have asked for more. I had originaly planned to fly back home to Indonesia to meet my family and more importantly to relax a bit before starting a full-time job.

Little did I know that my BRP (Biometric Residence Permit)- a plastic card issued by the UK Home Office which grants a permission to remain in the country- got delayed in production. If everything went smoothly, I could have received it around 1 ½ months ago, meaning I would have been having the time of my life vacay-ing in a tropical paradise (*cough* Bali is a short-flight away from Jakarta, my hometown) and not stuck in this gloomy and wet autumnal weather in London as we speak.

Though it was hard to accept the reality in the beginning, I have grown to realise that maybe everything happens for a reason, including the hiccup in my BRP production process.

If I had flown back home earlier, I would not have known that:

· Organising my new flat and unpacking took ages.

· I had a backpain-inducing mattress which forced me to make a plea to the landlord to get me a new one.

· Buying a mattress took more than a week to be delivered.

· IKEA Home Delivery could miss the chest of drawers when the truck came to my flat.

Not long after I wrapped up the logistics of settling into a new place in London, my BRP was ready to be collected. The next day, I marched to Heathrow and caught a flight home a.k.a “pulang kampung” in Indonesian language. The trip was short and sweet, but more importantly it allowed me to mentally prepare for a transition from being a student to becoming a full-time working professional.

The moral of the story is every cloud has a silver lining, whether I like it or not.

S B Teja

Written by

Sarah is a recent MSc Strategic Marketing graduate from Imperial College Business School. Prior to this, she read Economics for her undergraduate degree.

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