Here I am, I am Claudia, a new 30 year old and I have been living in Australia for 6 years. I was born wild. I am a Sagittarius, fire sign, with an open mind that pushes to travel. Living with enthusiasm but without getting too rooted in experiences. And so I have always tried to take off. Discover. Doing experience. Milan has always been close to me, I have never found myself in the frenzy and chaos of the city. And so I started looking for new horizons. I was lucky enough to have a family that has given me a lot, both materially and supportively. In addition to traveling a lot together, they allowed me to fly alone when I was only 16, with a school exchange project. Thanks to the non-profit association AFS / Intercultura, I was able to attend the fourth high school in an American High School, in Port Townsend, near Seattle, in the state of Washington. The impact that this experience had on my life was devastating: as an aspiring doctor that I was, I ended up enrolling in the Faculty of Political Sciences, degree course in "International Sciences and European Institutions".
"... And I never stopped"
And I never stopped. During the last three-year year I participated in the Erasmus project for a semester of study at the IEP in Grenoble. In the south-east of France. It was a very interesting experience, which completed the one in America, albeit very different from each other. That semester in France allowed me to get to know a different university reality. Much more important, a different human reality. And that's where I met my current husband. For love of him I started commuting between Milan and Adelaide, where he lived. First as a tourist and then as a student. Through my university's exchange program with the University of South Australia. Finally, in June 2011, after completing my master's degree in "International Relations" in Milan, I decided to emigrate to Australia for love. To have more job opportunities and a better quality of life than in Italy. I left my Milan with a one-way ticket and a lot of hope in my suitcase.
I came down under with the classic working holiday visaHis I was expecting a year that was not easy from a working point of view. And indeed it was: about a year and a half after my arrival in Australia, tired and embittered by the absence of real job opportunities, especially in my field of study, I decided to try the path of research. Having already completed a master's degree in Italy, I decided to take the next step and enroll in a PhD in Law from the University of Sydney.
Exactly 4 years have passed since I signed up and I am finally on the home straight, having delivered the thesis and awaiting the judgment of the examiners. In the meantime, I got married, bought a house and became an Australian citizen. My life has changed radically in these 6 years and if I look back I see a path of ups and downs, with many disappointments but also many satisfactions. And if I could go back, I would do it all again exactly as I did the first time.
