They say you shouldn’t make big decisions after a failure or a defeat. I failed during my trip to Prague. And I’ve been trying to let go of the sting of the failure. I was trying to help a family friend secure a visa to America. It was my second attempt and second failure. I’ve been working on it for two years.
I don’t know what to do next. I am unsure if I am able to do more to help. It’s humiliating to keep failing at securing a visa. Americans have little to no idea how hard it is to get into our country. Only 40 countries of 195 can travel to America without going through our Byzantine maze of rejection and waiting.
Maybe I need more time to pass before I’ll come up with another idea or solution. Every time I write about visa issues I get back a bunch of comments from folks and alas few of them appear capable of fixing the situation. I’ve got a few leads ranging from fixers to number one ranked legal firms. We’ve reached out and secured help from congressional representatives and ambassadors.
I don’t accept defeat easily. I chew on failure like a dog on a bone. I want to find a way to a solution for our friend but at this point it’s not just about them. I need to find a path forward for myself as well.
One reply on “Day 747 and Defeat”
Hey Julie, I am sorry to spam you but in case you didn’t see my last comment I’d be super grateful if you could post a tweet about AirportAbuse (my quixotic project to get justice for people who’re being abused at airports) ~ which has some similarities to your quixotic attempts at getting your friend the american visa. We’re both trying to do what we can to create feedback loops and awareness of broken systems that harm people.
If you’d tweet to your 33.7K followers it’d be huge for AirportAbuse and get the site some much needed exposure.