Twelve years since I first arrived in England. Twelve. And I still remember it like the first day.

It was 10th June 2012. A sunny morning dawned in Encinarejo de Córdoba, and a smile unlike any other was shining on my face. My first job was about to begin, and I was only a handful of hours (and thousands of kilometers, though not that many) away.

The suitcase that had taken me to Finland nine months earlier was waiting in my room, filled with excitement. And the best breakfast in my 24-plus years was being prepared just below it (that’s where the kitchen was in the house that had been my home for the previous 9 years).

The plane was leaving Málaga at 2:30 pm, so we couldn’t delay too much. The clothes I would wear had been decided ever since I successfully passed the interview with two of my future bosses on 30th May 2012. And besides, the Spanish National team was playing that afternoon (by coincidence, and not too far, against the same team who is playing tonight, Italy -my readers that support football now, and also 12 years ago, know perfectly how that match finishes, and how that Eurocup ended, exactly with that same match… but very different scoring…😎-). So yes, you guessed it. The Spanish National football team jersey was eagerly waiting to travel to the United Kingdom, where it would soon become famous…

We finished breakfast and got into the car to start a day of travel that would end a few hours later in Leeds, United Kingdom.

And there I was, in front of a boarding gate that would take me to Anglo-Saxon lands for the first time in my entire life. I had never traveled there before. And I was making my debut in a big way. With a job. With an opportunity that had never been offered to me in my place of origin.

I boarded the plane with a joy very different from what I would feel many other times. Naturally, it wasn’t the same to travel to make a dream come true as it was to return from a vacation. But how curious, this year, 10 days ago from today, is the first time I’m taking a flight on 10th June from Spain to England. My departure wasn’t from Málaga, nor was my destination Leeds. But there was one thing in common: the joy. I will tell more in the coming weeks, but what I’ve experienced those days in Valencia was something to always remember. The Personal Branding Course I embarked on a day after turning 36 years old, to start the theory part a month later and finish the practical part just now, is something that has changed me and, at the same time, has propelled that dream I always had, and that never disappeared. Today, thanks to that course, and also thanks to the one I started more than 12 years ago, I can say that my dream has been unlocked 🔝.

But let’s go back to 2012, and to the plane that was taking me to Leeds. As I said, there was a radiant sun in Encinarejo de Córdoba at dawn. It persisted in Málaga at midday, but as we approached the British Isles, the weather became cloudy, just like what happened to Dani Rovira arriving in the Basque Country in the iconic film Spanish Affair.

And it was raining. Oh, how it rained at 5:30 pm in Leeds, over the taxi that was taking me from the airport to the hotel where ten others and me would be staying during a week-long introductory course on Meat Inspection. But, well, what did it matter if it rained? My first job was just around the corner. And after all, it always rains in England, right?

Well… not always…

Because Life can be Wonderful 😎