Welcome to Australia instead

I am sincerely grateful for the circumstances that landed my family in Australia and NOT the USA.

By the time my father wanted to emigrate there, it was no longer the place he had fantasised about for many years under Nazi and Communist occupation.

Australia was for all of us, a strange and harsh land, far from what at that time felt like the comforting arms of family and friends. For my parents, it never became the
"homeland" that they sought until they had the means to leave Australia's shores and actually travel to the USA and meet up with the remnants of their families who had become refugees then immigrants, finally residents, then citizens who continued to live there.

I think that they appreciated the possibilities that they could have had there, but they could also see what opportunities existed for them in Australia. They no doubt mentally compared what was possible in the USA and at what cost with what they had been able to achieve both for themselves and their family in Australia.

Overall, the opportunities in Australia were greater than they had realised and finally they were able to be glad about the circumstances that had brought them to these shores.

Alas they did not live long enough to see how much happiness the migration process had wrought for their family.

I am now retired and can honestly say that I have never been unemployed unless I wanted to be.

At present I am benefiting from my education, my previous employment and the massive amounts of learning that I was able to acquire here.

Financially, like many retirees, I am suffering a hit from the fall in share prices but my superannuation, though negatively impacted, has been well enough managed to remain capable of meeting my needs into the future.

Alas I am not well and my illness will probably put paid to any hopes for a medal for longevity but overall I am satisfied with my life and will no doubt write a few words for those that come after me so that they can learn from my mistakes and benefit from my sucesses.