The first thing I wrote for Iamgreek.nl was about studying in the Netherlands. I tried to write about my personal experience as a master’s student here and I was really excited at that time, because I was thinking that I am a step closer to making my dreams come true. And here I am, trying again to express my experience as a student here, but now from a completely different perspective. I will start by telling you some things about me (don't worry, I' ll be short!)

Back in Greece I was studying psychology, but I was always thinking that studying merely psychology (you know...in Greece you are a psychologist, only if you can be around autistic kids or schizophrenics and of course, I do not share that opinion) is as boring as feeding pigeons in a park - when you can choose from a variety of specializations, why wasting your time studying about Freud, Klein, Pauget and other psychologists who, to be honest, I don’t even remember?

When I found out about the specialization of Economic and Consumer Psychology, I was like “Wooow! That’s cool! Let’s do it!!”, as I was always attracted by advertising, marketing and communications. Besides the fact that I had already found the master of my dreams, I was hearing from everyone things like “you should definitely go to the Netherlands, because things are not like Greece there”, or “you could easily find a job in the Netherlands, go, go, go...”.

So, here I am, far away from the broken Greece, where I will have to live in my parent's home and depend absolutely on them. I am doing a master and an internship I like, relevant to the future job I desire, in the Netherlands, the country where I should be able to ensure that I will have a job (as I was told...) in the future.

But why am I still hoping and not knowing how my future will look like?

Well...the thing is that things are not perfect in the Netherlands either. Ok, the Netherlands may not be like Greece, with almost all of my generation's people being unemployed, but still there is unemployment here too, there are stereotypes, because "you are from Greece, the damaged place of Europe", you need to speak fluent Dutch and so on, so on! No one ever talked to me about those stuff and now, I am gradually falling from the sky and believe me, the landing is definitely violent.

...and I miss Greece, I miss those sunny days that you could get around, drinking coffee and hanging out with friends under the sunlight, without being afraid that the next moment clouds and rain will destroy everything. I miss going to the supermarket and saying "ευχαριστώ", instead of "Dank u wel". I miss being around of my family and feeling like home. But are those tiny details enough to make me go back to Greece? Honestly, I don't know.

If I go back to Greece I will feel like (actually be...) home all the time, because I won't have the money to do otherwise, I may won't be in the shape to say "ευχαριστώ" in the supermarket, because I will have paid all I have to buy bread and milk or the sunshine may not be that shinny, because I won't be in the mood to enjoy it, thinking of what nows etc...

I started to write an article of what I am going to do next: Go back or not. But from the moment I started the writing I got more confused than ever, because I don't know what's best for me or other students like me. Maybe I should learn Dutch and try to find a job here or perhaps go back in Greece and figure my next steps out there. However, for the moment I will do a second master, here in the Netherlands, because as my father used to say: "If you cannot work, then better be well-educated".

So, I have one more year to consider what to do and who knows? I may be here next year telling you my story again! For now, the only thing everyone should do is to keep hoping and doing the best for oneself and as my grand mother used to say: "κανείς δε χάνεται! Για όλους έχει ο θεός". Let's hope that she knew something that we are missing!