Most of Us Don’t Realize We Have Been Exploited
How long must we take to finally wake up from our own personal hell? How I went from wanting to die to wanting to live.
At 22, after completing my degree, I desperately went to France to earn 300 euros a month. Generally, no one leaves their country to earn a pittance that my employer called salary.
In my innocence, I believed I was different. I aimed to learn another culture, improve my French, and earn a little money without expenses. More than six months had passed since the end of my course, and I couldn’t find a job. So, I thought it was always better than nothing.
It was the year 2012 in Portugal, a period marked by a severe economic crisis where jobs were scarce, whatever they were.
I had to be realistic: my International Relations degree wouldn’t land me a political position or job. Not for me, at least.
I recognized that while democracy had afforded me education, Portugal remained entangled in a rigid class structure. Without connections, upward mobility seemed impossible to me.
This realization drove my move to France.
I went to a house in the north of the country in the middle of winter to care for other people’s children…
