I survived, literally went to hell (which happens to be in the middle of nowhere) and came back four months later. I finally completed my 88 days of farm work in order to get my second year visa, this was by far the most physical job I have ever worked, I pushed myself to those I thought were my limits and found out how possible things can be if your mind and body work together... sound so obvious but it took me several mental breakdowns and few nights spent sitting on the floor contemplating whether it is all worth it or not(still don't know the answer tho). The long hours working on the fields were just perfect for a 'no-stop nine hours overthinking session', I've created at least three parallel universes in my mind where I picture versions of me running around in different dimentions, what a weirdo... at least my picking partner and I used our breaks wisely, racing each other to our silly games to kill the time as: "whospitsthemandarinsseedthefurthest" which, for the 46854th time, I always won. Between those patches of orange trees the situation was competitive and fun too, races against other pickers got aggressive sometimes... to the point that you couldn't see nothing but oranges flying in the air. It's not all fun, you know? This experience left me such an emotional scar, a trauma that I'll carry for the rest of my life: ladders. Ladders will be your worst nightmare, if you believe that ladders are just an helpfull tool to get to unreachable oranges then YOU are a fool, they are your enemy... waiting for the perfect moment to let you fall. You also have to manage daily mini heart attacks due to encounters with spiders and cockroaches waiting on top of an orange for you to snap or even worse find them insects inside your picking bag whilst you are on top of the ladder and manage not to fall from a 3 meters height, yup, not specific at all... But at the end I got to live the ultimate farm life, surrounded by the red colored ground of country roads, the magic colorful sunsets and the breathtaking starry nights... far far away from civilization and all you had to think about was: work, shower, Woolworths, 'socialize or you'll die soon'. I've met people from all over the world, some of them became so close to me, it took time to connect with each other and now that I'm latching on to them, they will always be with me. A big thanks for making this journey just about bearable.
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
titsay
prguitarman