Ana Claudia Antunes - A - Z of Happiness. Tips to Live By and Break the Chains that Separate You from Your Dreams

A-Z of Happiness: Tips to Live By and Break the Chains that Separate You from Your Dreams

Ana Claudia Antunes

Translated by Ana Bowlova

A-Z of Happiness: Tips to Live By and Break the Chains that Separate You from Your Dreams

Written By Ana Claudia Antunes

Copyright 2015 Ana Claudia Antunes

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Ana Bowlova

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

A fter the economic crisis that hit us in the past few years, rules at the job market has changed dramatically worldwide, and what worked before now are just ashes of what it was supposed to be. Right at this moment, millions of people are waiting to find that big break, that moment where they could look at themselves in the mirror and say, I win! And that is not being pretentious at all, nor is it the least impossible, some unreachable dream that only in fairy tales you will be able to hear about. Stories are out there. Of course, they are a few. Because people are still failing to recognize all the potential they can be, and all the goodies they could get if only they allowed themselves to be a big fish in a small pond. People think in terms of big but they are not giving the energy, and taking the necessary steps to get in there. They are not preparing themselves. And they are still thinking why, for Heavens sake, they can get that job, or be firmly putting their two feet on the ground. And they blame, the Earth, the Government, the Climate Change, and God for that. What the High has got to do with it? We should be focused on going below to be able to reach out to he highest levels. Only after we learned a few steps, from crawling down the ground and taking baby steps to reach out to the stairs and climb it on it takes time and a lot of persistence and stamina, Are you ready to reach out to the stars? Yes, Im sure you are. And if you are not, you will certainly be after the alphabet is finished here. But even if you are just looking for a job or just wishing to get raise, being promoted or simply find that client, the treadmill are simply not spinning like it was just a couple of years ago and we have been having a hard time to keep track of the things now. So, hop on and get ready for the ride will be messy but the reward will be classy!

But first and foremost I will introduce myself with a bit of a sad, yet powerful story that happened to me ten years ago and that indeed marked me for the rest of what is left for me as far as it's job related, a story which I called: An accidental Immigrant

• An Accidental Immigrant

T his is indeed to be considered a short story yet so true, for the experience of being an immigrant in America didn't last that long:

I entered the United States in the end of the ebullient Y2K with roughly my Basic English and a couple of dollars on my pocket, and no idea of what to expect or what I was going to do. My husbands company transferred him to work for at least three years in Washington, D.C. My Visa Status didnt allow me to work. Nevertheless, as soon as I put my two feet on the ground I started to work hard, as it seemed that everyone around there was basically doing that. I wrote and illustrated more than fifteen picture books and my staying home had me inspired for more three novels.

I've got that opportunity of "doing no-thin" within my hands and, with my own time and my own dime, I started to write my memoirs and a book about Out-of-Body Experiences encouraged by my active participation in an amazing forum in the net as I surprised myself by writing a whole lot about one sole subject. Time seemed to run, or rather, fly, while I kept myself pretty busy. In the meantime, I also experienced some overwhelming events, not only with personal and deep emotional stressful proofs and pains, but mostly situations from the outside as "The September Eleven tragedy", when I had just crossed New York City, a stalker menace at home, and (who can forget it? Only those who didn't have to pass through it) the Sniper Case, which took place right at the corner from where I lived.

Anyway, life continued. And although it seemed pretty dangerous to be just walking around my neighborhood, nevertheless, I decided to give classes for free in an Academy some three blocks away, which also gave me the opportunity to practice the so-obviously-necessary art of self-defense, of course.

A law finally arrived that spouses of workers would be allowed to work to help increase the economy for the crisis seemed to be there to stay after one year and a half (and what a heck of a year!) I was thrilled that I could finally apply for a work permit. The INS issued my Employment Authorization on July on the day of my birthday. And I wonder if they did it on my behalf...yes, I have a dream!

I was so thrilled that I could finally work where I really enjoyed the atmosphere and doing what I loved since I was a little girl (and earn money for that!) So I started to give Ballet classes the same day I got my card.

Three months later I was invited to perform and choreograph. I started to realize that my English was actually improving, as well as my brave new life there. I had the pleasure to see the incredibly rapid development of the number and work of my own students, and of all the home improvement we did, my husband and I, with our own hands, in our apartment. My books were miraculously getting in shape as well. And I could finally call America home. It was a splendor moment! Everything sounded to be going with a divine touch for me in my newly-adopted home.

** I had often said to a neighbor friend of mine, who also lived as an Immigrant, though she had married to an American man, that we should always play by the book. That if we do it all accordingly with the local laws there would be no mistakes and we should be safe. Little would I know then that I was so far from the truth. **

When everything seemed to be working out perfectly well for the newly-added wedded couple, without any notice, they kicked me out of the country, for my Visa depended on my husband's and he got laid off. ** I just didn't get deported because I left the country before this could even happen. I acted faster, and I left a week before my Visa would actually expire. So no problem when I took that plane, crying once I found my seat, and while I traveled around the red light from the obelisk that seemed to watch me like a spy eye. Deportation never came that near me, though, thank God!! Nevertheless, as a victim of the system, I had some very mixed feelings, from anger to profound sadness over my fondest hopes. All this frustration were especially due to the first time that I was actually obliged to be separated from my half-orange.** I had to leave before my husband did. We stayed more than five months without seeing each other, just trying to get our basis settled somewhere else, as we had to start from scratch (and when you start to scratch you cannot stop it!) We had to restart our lives from ground zero, the right beginning from where we left it, just once again... Now he wants me to write a book he insists me that I should promote with already a title: