30. Readjusting to Society

Readjusting to Society is the continuation in a series of hubs about my life of rebellion, dabbling in the Occult, drugs, crime and prison to life-changing conversion through Jesus Christ. Click here to read it from the beginning. In this hub, I will discuss my experience of readjusting to society after serving eight years in federal prison and being deported to Poland, Europe.

If you have read through my entire series, you know that upon my release from federal prison I was deported to Poland, Europe; so readjusting to society has been quite different for me than for most people getting released from prison. First of all, there was a considerable language barrier between me and Polish people, which worked both to my advantage and disadvantage. It worked to my advantage because I was able to play dumb when asked about my arrival to Poland, and act like I understood less than I actually did when I was confronted with inconvenient questions, like, “Why in the world would you move from America to Poland? Or, are you planning on ever going back (I was deported for life)?

Second of all, how was I supposed to get a job with such a limited understanding of the Polish language? I knew some Polish upon my deportation, but it was very limited. I was actually born in Poland; but after moving to the United States with my family when I was three years old and learning English, we hardly ever spoke Polish to each other. I had a lot to learn. I did prepare myself somewhat, prior to my deportation, by reading Polish language books; but I did not realize how insufficient that was to prepare me until I was in Poland. My comprehension of the language was considerably lacking. This, I realized in my conversations with Poles. I just did not understand much of what was being said.

I searched far and wide, on the Internet, for English speaking job opportunities in Poland. I came across a bunch of quick money making schemes, promising immediate earnings in the thousands of dollars; but most of them turned out to be scams. There was this one web site in particular that promised to teach you a proven money making system if you bought their software. After I investigated it, however, it turns out that the method taught by the software just left people in confusion; and when they attempted to return the software, they couldn’t get a refund. There were other get-rich-quick websites with such bad English grammar that it left me wondering what kind of professionals created them. After all, if they were so profitable, couldn’t they just hire someone with some decent English writing skills? It turns out they were professional African scammers. There were many such instances.

Finally, I figured that my best employment option was to teach English in Poland. I discovered that, as a native speaker of the English language, all I needed to qualify me to teach English was a TOEFL English teaching certificate. I found a web site which would allow me to do the entire TOEFL course online for $350. I completed the course in four months and my certificate was mailed to me. With that certificate, I was able to find a job in a local private English school later on. However, the hours were minimal. I didn't earn much. At the writing of this hub, I am not currently teaching at any language school and working hard doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

In terms of improving my basic Polish speaking skills, I found a number of You Tube videos on the Internet to help me. And you thought You Tube was only for watching babies, animals and things that explode. I have also gained some bilingual Polish / English speaking friends, which help when I don’t understand something in Polish. Writing with women on the Internet has been helpful to me, too. I found this dating site called Badoo, with quite a bit of Polish women on it. I chat with them a couple of times a week. This has helped me develop my Polish reading and writing abilities. Not to mention, it keeps it interesting. I have even met a few women through Badoo, for the sake of furthering the development of my Polish communication skills, of course. Moreover, I am a social guy and I enjoy meeting new people.

It was good that I was learning Polish, getting set up for employment and meeting new people. However, I still had to find a place to live. I have an amazing story of how I went from being released from prison with only $270 in my pocket to becoming the owner for a $50,000 flat in a matter of months. I will write about that in my next hub.

31. The Providence of God