What is "Far From Home" really about ?

There was a night which I had to do my tax papers for the first time in Canada. I have never even heard about that before. What is Tax return even??? sounds so strange, yet so simple. You might think that was all but hell no, not at all. I had to renew my passport too. A foreign passport but no embassy to change it. But that was not all. My application for work permit was also hanging on the side, begging me to finish it because I was running out of time. Oh yeah, and there was a mix of stress from work and school too. And you think that might be all but you know what? COVID! Covid-19 was also hanging in the background.

Anyways, I went to bed, leaving all of it for tomorrow. Procrastinating is kind of my thing now. You’ll get to know that soon enough. I couldn’t sleep that night. Oh, and when I can’t sleep something is terribly wrong. There was just too much in my mind. Too much that I had to deal with all alone. I felt so alone, so helpless. And then it hit me.

Why is there not enough support for us? Why do we come to live in a better situation but don’t get that? How can we make it better? Covid-19 made it harder too. I remember a while ago when I had all these questions, I would just head down to Service Canada to ask the officers and get the help I need since calling them never works. Like they never pick up the damn phone. After 3 hours of waiting and you realize you dialed the wrong part. But I could not even do that.

In the middle of all this misery, this idea was popped into my brain. Let’s have a blog, a website, an app, or anything that can connect us, answer our question. Something from within, within the community. With people who already did it once. So that we can help others in need just like us.

I mean my life would be so much easier that night if someone would have shown me directed me to the things I had to do to get my tax return papers. But except unorganized Service Canada website and some un relevant blogs, I did not find anything. So the idea emerged. And oh boy I was happy.

The next day I called my boyfriend. So excited to tell him about my new project which he was going to be a part of too. I could have not done it on my own. I needed all the help that I could get and he is the first person that I always go to.

We talked about how this could really benefit us, as a community. But two is never enough. There were just two different perspectives, but I wanted more. So why not do a participatory project where many different minds with different backgrounds could jumpy in and share their opinions.

So I called Gabi. She was so excited about it. She had so much in her hands already with university and work but still, she was down. And then I talked to Laurna, my roommate about the project. She was telling me this and that and so she got on board. The next stop was kind of far. Iran . . . but everything is online so why not. I called my childhood friend which was in Montreal but with Covid-19 and stuff had to go back to Iran.

I told him all about the project and how could this really help him share his story as well. He was on board less than a second after. And my final stop, a new friend who recently came from Iran and actually helped me to get some of my documents that I needed to renew my passport to me. And that’s how Mazyar was joined too.

So friendship as a method really worked out for me, and before I even knew we were doing the interview and filling the questionnaire and getting right down to business. It was really about time that someone from inside does something about it and yea why not me.

This is what Far From Home is really about, friendship, participation, giving in, and taking back. More than that as a whole, it serves a community, a community of international students that had been overlooked for so long. But this time it is from within, and it is from the inside that we can make changes. The project that was once about the downfall of university life and mental health of international students has now changed to this program of community care because that should have been the main goal from start.

So this is probably not the story you needed to hear, but this is how our little project came to life. And I hope no one gets any sleepless nights but that’s how good ideas emerge, so I won’t mind another one or two.